Goodbye Facebook

Written by Matthew Stein Monday, 25 October 2010 16:26

As some of you may have noticed, the Facebook page for Amelith Digital Alchemy no longer exists. Don't panic, I'm not closing down.

After much consideration of the potential costs and benefits, I have decided to part ways with Facebook, both professionally and personally. A big part of what I've been writing about here has been security and privacy. More than once what I've written has been a warning about the potential hazards of social networking, specifically Facebook. With that idea in mind, and with their continued disengagement with user privacy, I am no longer comfortable giving Facebook my implicit endorsement by using their service.

Social networking on the Internet can be good. There are some very useful tools that can help people to connect across distances and in ways that might not otherwise be possible. However, most social networking sites are operated by for-profit corporations. Inevitably, their primary goal will be shareholder profit, and not the best interests of the users, except where those two align. And when profit and user privacy are in conflict, profit will always win. To me, this is an unacceptable trade-off.

For those of you who saw my updates on Facebook and would like to keep receiving them, you can check back here or subscribe to the RSS feed. And if there's enough interest, I may make an email newsletter to let you know when there's something important going on.

Stay safe out there!