This seems on topic: 
I got an automated call the other day from a company telling me that there is a
recall on one of their products. More specifically, records from my grocery
store (presumably data stored in connection with my rewards card) indicated
that I had purchased their product between 3 and 18 months previously. It was a
little cool, and a little creepy at the same time. 

Eric

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 07:23 AM, Pieter Steenekamp <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
  If a grocery store offers to sell you a bread for a dollar, do you 
>accuse them of forcing you to give you a dollar? Then why do you accuse 
>Facebook of forcing you to do anything? If you don't like it, simply 
>don't open an account with them. If you don't buy bread then you die, so 
>I would rather accuse the grocery store of forcing me to part with my 
>dollar. If you don't open a Facebook account, at least you don't die.
>
>Pieter
>
>On 2010/09/26 09:03 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
>> No, it is not ridiculuos, it is serious.
>> I think the Facebook phenomenon rises a number of interesting questions:
>> Who are you? What is the core of a person? Why is social media so 
>> successful?
>> When does a company become evil?
>>
>> Social media and social networks are
>> a hot trend, maybe because people feel
>> increasingly isolated in a digital and
>> urbanized world. Erich Fromm says in "The Art of Loving":
>"The deepest 
>> need of man is to overcome his separateness, to leave the prison of 
>> his aloneness." All social networks exploit this need.
>> For example a social network for books like GoodReads or Shelfari 
>> connects you to readers with similar interests.
>> Facebook is special. It claims to connect
>> you to the people you already know.
>> The problem is:
>>
>> a) You probably have multiple circles of
>> friends, and these friends belong to different
>> areas: family, job, hobby, sports, etc.
>> Facebook allows you only to have one
>> circle of friends and one single identity, your physical identity 
>> characterized by your real name and your real photo. Since the 
>> identity forms the core of a person, it reduces you to your physical 
>> appearance.
>> If you are not good looking or if you have
>> no friends, like the shy nerdy student Kip Drordy in the video, then 
>> Facebook classifies you as a loser. It denies you
>> to be what you want to be, but the declaration
>> of independence says: "all Men are created equal, they are endowed 
>> [..] with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty 
>> and the pursuit of Happiness."
>> It does not mention the right to have a
>> Facebook profile.
>>
>> b) To connect you to your friends, a company must own your private
>data.
>> Facebook forces you to reveal your private data, to give up your 
>> privacy. Would
>> you tell the government who your friends
>> are, where you have been, what you are doing?
>> Then why do you tell it to a private company?
>> Should our private life and our private data belong to a company at 
>> all? The people who think Facebook is evil say no. This is similar to 
>> the question of Microsoft a few years ago: should our Operating 
>> System, the Operating System of our computers, belong to a company? 
>> The people who think Microsoft is evil say no.
>>
>> Contrary to Twitter, Facebook forces you to give up your privacy: "We 
>> will connect you to your friends
>> (if you give us your private data)".
>> and reduces you to your physical appearance
>> "We will connect you to your friends
>> (if you tell us what you are doing
>> right now and how you look like)"
>> That's why Facebook is evil.
>>
>> -J.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: Alfredo Covaleda To: The Friday 
>> Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Sent: Saturday, September 25, 
>> 2010 10:58 PM
>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] You Have 0 Friends
>>
>> So funny.
>>
>> My Facebook profile has more friends than me. Isn't is ridiculous?
>>
>> Alfredo
>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
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>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>
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>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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>
>
>

Eric Charles

Professional Student and
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Penn State University
Altoona, PA 16601


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