A little while back, I got wind of some pretty nasty stuff going on at Lower Merion High School, my alma matter (also Kobe Bryant’s) located in the Philadelphia area. Recently after my graduation in 2007, the school decided to give every student a MacBook for their personal and academic use. The school district reserved the right to turn on the video camera on the laptops to try to recover stolen or misplaced computers, but somehow didn’t make it clear to parents or students that the cameras could be turned on at any time. In the end, “the system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes,” reports Philly.com.

The school district ended up getting caught with thousands of webcam photos of students, many of which were not theft related at all. However, several missing laptops have been recovered over the last year due to this asset tracking system. When I first heard about these events in my hometown, I was disgusted. How did the school think it could get away with such blatant violations of student privacy? But at the same time, the laptops do belong to the school, and it makes total sense to track valuables like computers when they are allocated to high school students. Dear Lower Merion High School: next time, draft a waiver. Also, make sure a computer is actually stolen before engaging in covert asset tracking.

Sincerely,
Gabrielle
Class of ‘07

Thoughts on Facebook | entrepreneurship

I just saw Jason Calcanis letter to Mark Zuckerberg concerning Facebook’s current business practices.  Like everyone else in the Tech industry, we all have our 2 cents and I’m not any different.  My thoughts on Jason’s points:

1. Being able to export everything – I do believe this feature would be nice to have, however this is an aspect of Facebook’s sustainable competitive advantage.  They’ve created an ecosystem where there is a huge cost to switch to a competitor.  If a competitor that was everything facebook but 10x better, it would be hard for them to convert users away from Facebook.  Facebook is where all the content is and by enabling users to export their content creaks the door open for competitors.  And no, Facebook is not too big to worry about 5 kids in garage.
2. Universal Like Button – People are not doing open source without strategy behind it.  Having an open source system is to create a standard and quickly capture the market.  Bluetooth radio standard is free to use and license.  Bluetooth did this model in order to accomplish the interoperability between devices and quickly gain market share versus competitors such as Zigbee.  However there is no need to do this when your company is the standard.
3. Currency – 100% behind you there.
4. Remind users of privacy settings – This sounds annoying.  The truth is that everyone sub 30 doesn’t have much problem with sharing everything.  Your open letter is a sign of this.  Mark probably would have appreciated a direct letter to him and would have read it just the same.  Sharing more information and creating a search index for more than just sites is the future of web 2.0.  Without displaying certain information to the public, it is impossible to create the internet of people.
5. Partner more – This way of partnering sounds like a lot of Barney relationships.  If the partnership saves time, money, and creates value Facebook (like most companies) partner or purchase the startup.  But partnering just because it’s the good thing to do in the valley does not sound reasonable.

Those are my thoughts on the letter.

Few obvious points on me:

• Yes, I am a fan of Facebook
• As a young entrepreneur, I do look up to what Mark Zuckerberg is doing now
• I am a lot dumber than Jason Calcanis and my knowledge cannot compare to his

-Chris

Over the course of the last month, the repeated accusations and frustrations that social media networks are violating our privacy have been hard to ignore. Facebook undoubtedly leads the industry in consumer complaints, but in the latest scandal MySpace is part of the bundle. The Wallstreet Journal reported this morning that a few sites including these network giants have been dishing out user information to advertising companies like DoubleClick and RightMedia. The weirdest part about all of this is that the receiving companies claim that they never asked for the data. Why would Facebook (et. al.) volunteer confidential information about their users, a clear breech of the terms & conditions we all agree to before signing up? Not cool, Facebook.

But at the same time, we have to realize that by signing up for Facebook we are taking a risk. At the end of the day, we’re the ones who sign up for Social Media Networks, input our own information, and open our profiles to the invasive nature of the internet. Facebook may re-evaluate their terms & conditions, they may make new ’simpler privacy settings’, however in the end we still need to watch our backs. Sure, they should act in line with the contract, but it would be naive to assume that everyone always follows the rules. Laws get broken–that’s why we have a justice system.

We can blame social media networks all day for dishonesty, privacy violation, etc., but the only way to insure our privacy is to take matters into our own hands. Facebook’s legal issues might not be enough for you to delete your account, but at the very least we should all  reconsider our account settings.

-Gabrielle

This past weekend, I have been shocked by the invasive messages sent to consumers through web mediums. I first started thinking about this because of a great article on ReadWriteWeb about Facebook deactivation: the writer explains that when he tried to get rid of his account, a message appeared informing him that his friends would be unable stay in touch if he went through with the deactivation. Pictures pop up of particular people who will “miss you”, and the writer notes that they were all people he knows relatively well. Also, he notes that Facebook will continue to send you emails after deactivation unless you “opt out” of emails.

The manipulation evident from this article is in no way singular; my friend received an email from Urban Outfitters today telling him to call his mother (i.e. “did you forget about Mother’s Day? If so, you can make up for it by buying her something from our store!”). Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Mother’s Day. I would just prefer that Urban Outfitters not tell me to call my mom, and that Facebook not guilt trip me for quitting their club.

-Gabrielle