Julianna Yau’s blog

William Patry writes about an interesting situation where a UK ad agency has produced an ad which is strikingly similar to a video produced by University of Illinois professor Daniel Simons (includes links to both videos). Patry also points to the Bike Biz article, which includes a statement from professor Simons.

What I find interesting about this situation is that it raises questions of the line between an idea and its realization. What is fair for both the original creator and a creator who builds from that work? And, perhaps more to-the-point, what part of the idea is unique to the realization?

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There has been so much whining recently about Facebook Beacon invading everyone’s privacy that I would like to pose this open question to the world: How does Facebook Beacon technically work?

Yes, yes. I know that Beacon is supposed to steal your information from non-Facebook websites and broadcast it to your friends via the Facebook news feed. But how does it actually do this?

Facebook’s own page about Beacon is very vague about how it works—just some of techno-/pr-jargon boasting how cool it is. A Google search for “facebook beacon” is not much more help…mostly just links to the people complaining about Beacon invading their privacy and articles regurgitating the complaints. Others, such as Om Malik, have also tried to get more information about Beacon, but with little more than a hyped response from Facebook.

After some digging, I was able to find MoveOn.org’s “demo” of how Facebook Beacon works. This so-called demo is a low-tech slide show moving at a speed almost as fast as Beacon’s notification reportedly disappears. Essentially, it was a “chain of events” presentation with some commentary and some missing links (and not much technical information). Dave McClure’s walk-through of Beacon was more useful, providing not only clear screenshots but also (gasp!) links to how people can change their privacy settings. However, it still did not provide any information to remove the smoke and mirrors of Beacon.

Although I’m very concerned about my privacy being breached, I also like to know the facts (or at least try something for myself) before I start waging war. Trying Beacon for myself was, surprisingly, as daunting as trying to find some information online about its inner workings.

After repeated attempts, I couldn’t get Facebook Beacon to invade my privacy.

After reading a few articles and press releases, I chose my targets: eBay, Amazon and Livejournal. These are all companies with which I have accounts, but I worried a bit because I use different email addresses on all of them (and Facebook) to reduce the chance of the accounts all being compromised. I assumed, from what I know about website and computer settings, that a common email address for all accounts could be a possible way for the accounts to be linked due to the information stored on cookies (I was neither able to prove or disprove this assumption).

I started with Livejournal, because it was the only site which had any help documentation on Beacon. It even uses an opt-in option for users to activate the service (kudos to LJ!). After several attempts (including: different login chronology for Facebook and Livejournal; using and not using the Facebook Toolbar; and even changing my Livejournal email address to match the one used for Facebook) I was unable to trigger a news event to my Facebook page. I tried this in Firefox in Linux, and both Firefox and IE in Windows—nada.

Frazzled, I tried adding an item to my Amazon wish list and watching an item on eBay…still nothing in Firefox or IE. Of course, I could have purchased something from Amazon or eBay to really test it but, as curious as I am, I refused to purposely spend money to possibly have my privacy invaded.

So, for now, I am not only unable to determine how Beacon works, but I’m unable to get the damned thing to work!

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Last week, Facebook (seemingly quietly) launched Facebook Pages. I say seemingly quietly because I learned of it not through the tech blogs I read or from my Ma.gnolia contacts or groups, but from MAKE blog’s announcement of their Facebook Page.

According to their help section, Facebook Pages “are distinct presences, separate from users’ profiles, and optimized for these entities’ needs to communicate, distribute information/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fans’ recommendations to their friends.”

My take? This is Facebook taking on MySpace’s music section. The big difference is that Facebook is targeting all creators and businesses, not just musicians, comedians and filmmakers.

The creation of a Facebook Page is scarily easy. You go to their page for creating a Page, and if you are an “Artist, Band, or Public Figure”, you enter your name and the page is created. There are also options for local businesses and brand/products, which I’m guessing are a bit more involved. Because, as a sculptor, I don’t fall into those categories, I didn’t give them a try.

Once an artist’s page is created, it includes a few basic applications:

• Fans (like Friends or Group members)
• Photos
• Videos
• Events
• Mini Feed
• Information
• Reviews
• Discussion Board

Like applications for a Facebook profile, these can be disabled or moved, although they can’t be moved from one column to another. Facebook has also created a Pages category for applications. Although these applications are meant to be specifically for Facebook Pages, a quick survey of them seems to indicate that they are currently mostly bling for your Page.

If you have removed an application, it can be re-added in the Page admin area (which is separate from the Page Edit area, similar to applications for your profile). Other features in the Page admin area includes making the Page public or private, and setting age limits (13+, 18+ and 21+).

When editing your Page info, you can upload a photo, add “basic” information (address and hours of operation) and “detailed” information (website, parking details and public transit information).

Curious? Take a look at my Facebook Page.

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Om Malik has written an article entitled Is Facebook Beacon a Privacy Nightmare?.

(Noticed from Todd Sielig’s Ma.gnolia bookmarks).

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Yesterday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner released a short Flash presentation (complete with sound) What does a friend of a friend of a friend need to know about you?.

This presentation is a good introduction/summary to what many already know thanks to the news coverage about Facebook & MySpace’s targeted advertising ventures. As a Facebook addict myself, I know that it’s all too easy to forget about privacy when one is taking quizzes or completing all the fields in profiles. After all, it’s quite seductive to think that someone else might actually be interested enough to read your profile—and maybe even think that you’re cool! The truth is that “someone else” is more likely to be an advertiser than even a friend (I personally rarely even read the profiles of my closest friends… after all, I know them in “real life).

In September, I wrote A Primer On Privacy And Facebook for a friend who was concerned about other Facebookers and how much of her life they could see. I naively forgot to consider what other companies/people could know about her by giving Facebook money to advertise a product or service to her.

The concept of targeted advertising is tricky—after all, we don’t pay any money for our usage of Facebook and they need to have money to maintain their operations. But while we don’t directly give social networks any money, we do have to surrender some privacy and some of our copyrights (most social networking sites demand “worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s)” to duplicate and distribute user-generated content; not a problem for most, but people who use social networking sites professionally must take heed).

Will all of this make people back off from social networking sites and return to email? Probably not. Especially because services like Gmail are already providing targeted advertising with the content of your email. But we do need to be smarter and more careful about the information we put out there.

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