Loosing Site

Orkut, has introduced a new feature that increases the privacy of it’s members. Community owners can now choose whether to make their content private, so that only community members can view discussions, forums and events.

orkut Blog: Create a Private Community via kwout

This follows on from recent functional refinements and awareness raising activities relating to individuals’ privacy settings.

The change opens up the possibility of using Orkut for applications that require greater trust and security e.g. maintaining family contacts, supporting distance learning activities or organizing local clubs and societies. Its also reflects an increasing level of activity and discussion around broad issues of online privacy and ownership of social graph data.

Techdirt: Is There A Conflict Between Open Social Graphs And Your Privacy? via kwout

The whole issue is made more complex when some users’ desires for data portability conflict with other’s needs for discretion.

Facebook privacy chief: Data portability dangers overlooked | InfoWorld | News | 2008-02-08 | By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service via kwout

Trust relationships are becoming more entangled as platforms grow in power and flexibility.

TouchGraph | Products: Facebook Browser via kwout

Facebook and Open Social applications are able to access their installer’s social graph. So, when I trust you as a friend I’m also entrusting some of my data to your applications. There are fine and evolving balances to be drawn between convenience and security that should give us a more granular choice than simply whether to be exposed or anonymous.