Before we get started here, I just want to make it known that this article is by no means meant to be an anti-Facebook or a “scare post”. It’s nothing more than stating the obvious (or not so obvious) fact as to what truly motivated Facebook to adopt the new “timeline” feature. If you haven’t heard or seen Timeline, yet that’s okay, it’s not something Facebook has pushed out to everyone – they’ve only offered the option to sign up for those who wish to be early adopters. A good way to know if you, or your friends, have adopted timeline is to simply checkout the header of your friends Facebook wall. If you see something similar to the following, then they’ve accepted the early invite:
Hint: A great way to checkout timeline if you haven’t yet is to visit Mark Zuckerbergs page!
Timeline is focused on the timeline of your life, it’s that simple. Timeline takes Facebook above and beyond simple status, photo, and video sharing by providing a sophisticated way to log and share specific activities in your life. Timeline provides a way to share just about anything from adopting a child to developing an illness (no, that’s not a joke!) as you can see below:
One thing you might have noticed with Timeline that’s even more interesting, is where they’ve chosen to place the advertisements on the page – you’ll notice they are tucked away in the corner of the screen where you really can’t see them. Now it’s no secret that Facebook, being the wonderful and free service that it is, makes all of their money off of advertisements; so you’d wonder why they’d spend all that capital to develop a system that actually hides the advertisements more than ever. Well, the answer is pretty simple.
It’s been a long standing theory that Facebook doesn’t really profit off of traditional advertisements; they are more into the niche market research and data. Take this scenario into consideration: a college calls Facebook and wants to know what books their students have been reading. Facebook is able to respond by doing a simple query into their endless pools of information and come back with a database filled with stats regarding what books have been listed as “Favorite Books” by people who have also joined their college network. In return for this highly specific information or market research, if you will, said college pays Facebook a hefty sum of money.
Timeline is simply an evolution of this type of service. Facebook started out by simply giving you a way to go about listing your favorite books, movies, tv shows, etc. The next stage of this process was the ability to “Like” different things, so Facebook could better place you in these searches. Timeline is probably the most advanced evolution Facebook has ever had in this type of niche information service, and it’s very impressive. Facebook has essentially found a way to “bridge the gap” from online life to offline life. It provides a way to share very specific, and very personal, life events that, if posted any other way, would be almost impossible for the internet to track. You are giving them information that can be used to determine entertainment statistics, medical statistics, and just about anything else, really – the possibilities are endless. They are building a massive personal knowledge database, and we are doing all the work – in exchange for an awesome and easy way to connect with friends and family, of course!
Facebook is a free service, but they do sell a product – and the product is you.
That level of tracking and personal information selling may seem a bit freaky to some, but it isn’t necessarily a reason to get paranoid; it’s just how they run their business. Frankly, Facebook is just making the job of market research teams easier by providing a one stop shop for data that they would have collected anyways – but likely over a much longer period of time.
If this does make you paranoid, the unfortunate news is there really is no way to “opt-out” of this type of tracking when it comes to Facebook. When you signed up for the very first time, you specifically agreed to it in their Terms of Service Agreement.
There is, of course, one very easy way to limit the information Facebook tracks – don’t share it. If you are uncomfortable with the new features of timeline, just don’t use it. There is no one standing over your head with a shotgun screaming, “ENTER THE LOCATION YOUR FIRST CHILD WAS BORN!” If you don’t want a market reasearch company to have one click access to your personal life, then you shouldn’t be sharing it on Facebook.
I suppose the moral of the story is think before you click, and enjoy the new timeline feature!
