Photo: Facebook

If you’ve been to any technology websites in the last two weeks, you would have noticed that there is a lot of unrest about the new Facebook privacy settings. Now, the EU has spoken up, sending Facebook a letter expressing its concerns.

Unacceptable and overreaching

The Data Protection Union Party, a division of the European Union, explicitly says the latest Facebook privacy revision where a user’s data is made public by default is unacceptable. According to the EU – and many users, too – a user’s information should be shared only with ‘self-selected’ friends, by default. Beyond that, ‘further access… should be an explicit choice of the user’. This particular statement speaks to indexing by search engine, too.
In addition, the EU pointed out that if this public data was used for commercial purposes, Facebook would be breaching ‘data protection laws’.

The letter the EU sent out had very transparent language, at one point making reference to ‘free and unambiguous consent’, which, in the minds of everybody but Zuckerberg maybe, a default public clearly is not.

Too big to not regulate

Photo: Stock.Xchng

At over 400 million users, and fast approaching the 500 million mark, Facebook has legitimately gotten too big to not regulate nor question.

What others are saying

Everybody has had something to say about Facebook, its big play to dominate the web, and its privacy policies lately. Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo, has described Mark Zuckerberg as a ‘kid’ ‘overplaying his hand’.

Facebook’s responded

Facebook was quick to respond, pointing out that they already have an option for users to not be indexed by the major search engines. In addition to that, the company indicated it’s willingness to ‘continue working with the Data Protection Working Party’. What matters is that Facebook privacy is no longer a fringe conversation, but rather a legitimate, important social issue.

Photo: Zynga

Social games maker Zynga, who are Facebook’s biggest advertiser, is striking it out alone, with the two social companies’ relationship becoming severely strained.

Facebook credits the problem

Apparently the major problem is with Facebook Credits being pushed through as the sole mobile payments platform on Facebook. The big hiccup? Facebook takes 30 per cent revenue of all transactions processed. Zynga, naturally, aren’t happy with having to fork over that much of its money for in-game transactions when it already hands over money to Facebook.

Contingency plan

Not only is Zynga launching Zynga Live for all of its games and its platform, the company already has a contingency plan in place through launching a dedicated site to host its most popular game, Farmville. With Facebook limiting Zynga’s ability to message users on the platform, the company has been relentlessly trying to get its users’ email addresses so that it can contact them outside of Facebook.

Mutual relationships split

Photo: Facebook

With Zynga looking likely to leave Facebook, one of the most symbiotic relationships in the entire social space comes to an end. Zynga, who contributed a large portion of Facebook advertising revenue, while Zynga established itself on Facebook, as well as built the lion’s share of its userbase on the platform. In splitting, both companies will take a hit, with interaction on Zynga plunging in the short term and Facebook losing millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

However, according to sources that reported to TechCrunch, the companies have reached an impasse, and splitting ways may be the only resolution.

Not a total split

If Zynga does split with Facebook, it’s likely the company will still let users connect via Facebook Connect, Twitter, Google ID and other third-party services.

Scale disrupted

Zynga has over 235 million users and Facebook has over 400 million, making these two services among the largest on the Internet. Zynga and Facebook’s relationship was bound to get strained. It is just surprising things have boiled over this soon and the Zynga Live strategy is already trickling out.

Photo: Facebook

The Facebook Effect is a book that takes an intimate look into the company many call this decade’s Google. Early reports indicate it makes for good reading into the service you likely spend an inordinate amount of time on.

The inside story

Early praise for the book indicates the author, David Kirkpatrick, has gotten close enough to the company that he’s been able to glean previously unknown information about Facebook and its early days.

Excerpts

Fortune has two telling excerpts from The Facebook Effect, one of which recounts the now fairly well-known story of how Facebook came about, but later goes into details about CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s unusual mannerisms and habits, as well as giving details on the company’s raucous lifestyle in its first ‘office’, a four bedroom apartment shared among seven people.

The second excerpt talks about when Facebook had reached the scale where billion dollar acquisitions were all in the air, prior to the days of Facebook Connect and the like. It gives a fascinating account of how Michael Wolf, President of MTV Networks, fostered a ‘friendship’ with Zuckerberg, culminating in an $800 million offer after flying Zuckerberg on a GulfStream G5.

Back in the now

Photo: Apple

Outside of the allure of reading about how Facebook has become what it has become, the company has indicated it plans to take over all things social on the Internet. With a 400 million plus strong userbase and on a tear towards 500 million, Facebook used its recent f8 conference to announce a slew of products that will build on what Facebook Connect started. A variety of APIs and plugins will allow Facebook friends to interact with each other on other sites.

In addition, early signs are showing Facebook on the iPad will be as ubiquitous as the application is for the iPhone. Between the early days, Facebook Connect, and Facebook’s lofty ambitions, The Facebook Effect looks likely to make for a great reading.

Photo: Facebook

Facebook has decided it wants to become Big Brother – the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-connecting fabric of the Internet. And, in case you haven’t noticed this, they have been working towards this goal for some time already through Facebook Connect. Does this scare you? Should this scare Google?

This is your f8

At their f8 Developer’s Conference, Facebook laid bare its product roadmap. The company has been working on several products, which are essentially expansions, most notably social apps, Open Graph and Open Graph API, a grouping of products that will make the default web experience a social one, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. They are, essentially, examples of Facebook Connect on crack.

Have at you, Google

Photo: Facebook

This is very much a warning to Google. Currently people’s default web experience is through search, but Facebook has said they want people’s default experience to be within Facebook. Insofar as friends and groups share the links you need, you will essentially no longer need Google. And with Facebook’s recent addition of search from within the service, this isn’t all that farfetched, nor is a user base of 400 million plus.

You like numbers?

At the start of his keynote presentation at f8, Zuckerberg, almost showing off, mentioned a list of unreal stats. Firstly, it seems like Facebook is fast approaching 500 million users with Zuckerberg saying the company is growing at its fastest rate ever. He expanded by adding how quickly the company got to 100 million mobile users compared to the core service, and further added they’re up to 300 million mobile users.

And, with the nature of Facebook’s service, and the benefits of Facebook Connect, the company has more information on you than Google, meaning it can better target advertising and cater to user needs. The company is clearly ambitious, and f8 more than confirmed it.

Photo: Facebook

Facebook Connect, astutely called the ‘plumbing of the social web’, is set for a massive integration with one of the Internet’s biggest services, iTunes.

iTunes connected

iTunes is said to be integrating Facebook Connect into its service, according to a report on TechCrunch.com. This makes sense, considering how iTunes have been leveraging their presence on Facebook, particularly their fan page, to connect with users, as well as the song sharing via Facebook (and Twitter) feature it introduced late last year. Apple has also had previous relations with Facebook with the built-in image uploader found in iPhoto, meaning this social web partnership could be a cinch to pull off.

Why this is a big deal

Photo: Apple

If the rumours are indeed true, this will give Facebook an almost unquestioned lead (and entrenched dominance) in social networking. iTunes is the biggest digital marketplace in the world, as well as the biggest record store in the world, acting as a storefront for all things iPhone, iPad and iPod related. This would mean Facebook will get free exposure on a site frequented by many paying customers, which if leveraged well, could have great revenue implications.

Facebook Connect explained

Photo: hi5

Facebook, in case you didn’t know – doubtful as that may be – is a social network service with over 400 million active users. In its demanding users to use their real names to sign up for the service, the company has been able to get legitimate information on a huge percentage of the Internet using population.

To cement their lead, the company built what is known as Facebook Connect, a little widget for the social web any website owner can put on their site to allow users to connect to that site with their Facebook details. This has been implemented in commenting for blogs, or authorisation for various other websites that require you give personal information.

And, insofar as Facebook Connect keeps getting adopted by more and more big players, MySpace, hi5 and other social networks will be forced to play for scraps.