Should I Be Scared of Facebook?

Recently, Wired posted an interesting Article about what’s going on at Facebook. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-rogue/

Right now, Facebook gets my vote for scariest company on the web.

The obvious power play in launching the Open Graph API is concerning. People are starting to build applications using a Facebook API that has zero oversight from the community. Facebook, like Apple, has shown that they make decisions based on arbitrary and emotional factors instead of facts. Look at what’s going on right now with Zynga. They’re at the forefront of social gaming and when they refused to go exclusive to Facebook, Facebook responded by restricting  Zynga app messaging. As a result Zynga is considering leaving Facebook completely. (source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/07/zynga-gunning-up-and-lawyering-up-for-war-against-facebook-with-zynga-live/).

Just as concerning is Facebook’s acquisition of  scraping company Octazen Solutions in February. Although this was mostly a talent acquisition we’re already beginning to see what they’re going to be using this acquisition for (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/c2ko3/how_did_facebook_guess_my_email_addresses/). The worry is no longer “what information am I giving Facebook about myself?” but instead “what information is ANYONE giving Facebook about me?”. It’s a scary shift in the way information is used and gathered on the web.