There has been much talk today over the release of the Facebook "Places" application in the US, a rival to iphone apps like Foursquare. I looked at 3 different articles on this particular unveiling and the different ways they were treated by each publication.
Firstly, I noticed this article in the Daily Telegraph. This article fairly blandly reported the release of the app, without really giving an opinion or going for a particular angle. It is interesting to note that the article quotes "Some experts", without actually noting who they are, which does make you question the credibility of the article. Not to say that the expert opinions are untrue, however their authenticity could be doubted. The article does go to the trouble to quote the Facebook vice-president, however doesn't actually cite the reference for that quote.
This article only briefly mentions (in one short sentence) the privacy concerns that seem to be rattling the internet community at the moment. However, this article this evening on Mashable, seems to go into much more depth on the privacy concerns. Mashable is a social media news site, so it is understandable that it would report such a social-related story in greater depth. In fact, it ran a number of stories on the app today:
http://mashable.com/2010/08/19/facebook-places-iphone
http://mashable.com/2010/08/19/facebook-places-guide
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/facebook-places-poll
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/facebook-launches-its-location-features-live
The Mashable article cites other Facebook privacy related concerns that were raised earlier in the year (in fact, the Daily Telegraph article didn't provide any hyperlinks at all). The also cite the ACLU, a civil liberties group in Northern California; a reference that may be a valid one, but I do question how reputable they may be. They may be well know in America, however they are not known to an Australian audience.
I actually found the ACLU article cited by Mashable a very interesting read. They've taken quite a different approach and seems to be quite fear-focused. Whilst the Daily Telegraph report does not differ much to a basic press release, the ALCU is focusing on the monster that Facebook appears to have become. The use of taglines, such as "facebook is rolling out a "here now", privacy later", and phrases like "safeguarding your location information" clearly have a specific, persuasive purpose; to convince users to be wary of the app. It is quite successful in doing so.
It really felt like there were 3 tiers of reporting here on the same issue:
- The Daily Telegraph with its fairly bland, seemingly-unresearched (or at least not originally researched) Press release
- Social media report from Mashable which felt fairly impartial
- ACLU website's somewhat scare-mongering report on facebook and it's failure "to build in some other important privacy safeguards."
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