Privacy. It has become “hot topic” as number of people who use social networking tools grows and it seems that it will be so for a while.

Recent case, provoking a protest storm across the internet, is about Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder. According to Mark Zuckerberg, privacy is no longer a social norm. (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/3848950)

So, should we get over it? Really?

Look, what did Zuckerberg say:

“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time. We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.”

Have the current social norms really evolved? Someone had better remind Zuckerberg that being social and sharing openly are not being naked* on the net ( naked on the net : to be visible with all his/her private information)

Numbers tell us different story about that social norm : http://fstutzman.com/2009/03/09/ny-times-botches-sns-privacy/

Michael Zimmer, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who has done extensive research on social media, said Zuckerberg’s comments seemed calculated to make users and advertisers feel more at ease with sharing online. That’s the world he wants, so he makes statements to make it seem as if it is true. Social-Network sites need users to share information, and any attempts to limit that sharing is contrary to SNS business models.” (http://www.crm-daily.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13000005HZQC)

Is privacy a social norm of the past as more people use social networking tools?

End of Privacy or Time for Privacy?

For whom the bell tolls?

Of course,  The bell tolls for you.

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Anyway, share and drink responsibly and dream of a warm country :)

All tech blogs and all mainstream media are full of news about Apple and its tablet computer called the iPad. But interesting thing, all of them are talking about price, features of and prospective demand to iPad but none of them is talking about the iPad’s DRM (Digital Rights Management / Digital Restrictions Management), which is bad for users’ freedom, and some other restrictions on iPad.

There is no doubt that iTunes transformed the music industry or iPhone transformed the cellphone. We so far can not predict whether iPad can transform tablet devices as iPhone did the cellphone. Maybe, it will but the thing is not about the transforming tech industry, but about the freedom. Apple’s innovative products always go beyond the customer expectations and raised the bar in terms of design and quality. Ipod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad. Yes, They are the state of the art products.

Apple is leading today for tomorrow, not only in meaning of innovative, state of the art products but also in meaning of restricting user’s freedom. DefectivebyDesign, is an anti-DRM campaign , says :

“Apple launched a computer that will never belong to its owner. Apple will use Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to gain total veto power over the applications you use and the media you can view.” (Campaign web site: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/ipad)

You can not read e-book If that e-book is not in Apple iBook library, you can not watch oggVorbis videos, you can not install applications if that application is not downloaded from Apple Application Store. You can not do/read/watch/listen/install anything outside the line of apple. It makes us remember 1984? Yes, It does.

Once upon a time, 26 years ago,  Apple was saying “1984 won’t be like 1984″ (1984 Apple’s Macintosh Commercial)

What an irony!

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