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Just give me an invitation and I am ready.

Facebook and Google are the two Tech companies I least trust with my personal info. While Google+ may offer technical advantages, it also heaps more of the digital pie on Google's plate; not something I look forward to.

The question for me is: Which giant intrusive advertising company do I despise less?

The answer is: I'm sticking with Twitter.

This post has been edited by AppleZilla: 04 July 2011 - 08:27 AM

Google has proven time and time again that they are completely anti-consumer in their business practices, they will violate people's privacy as often as they can (just as one example, how about their Google Street cars stealing & harvesting everybody's private information via WIFI?), PLUS they offer ZERO TECHNICAL SUPPORT for ANY of the products. You are completely on your own if you need help with ANY Google products.

I would much rather trust Facebook than Google with my private information. Plus, there is already tremendous amount of momentum behind Facebook -- people don't want to switch to another social networking company.

Oh, and you're wrong about the photo tagging thing on Facebook -- you absolutely have the option to be notified before a photo tag goes live.

I kinda think that Google's Buzz fiasco still keeps me wary of their handling of my personal data. They haven't made security hoops difficult to jump through as Facebook has, but I can only imagine they'll have to do something similar as they grow the feature.

scott2si, on 04 July 2011 - 08:36 AM, said:

I think you are forgetting some of the controversy that Facebook has experienced over the last few years regarding privacy issues, updating settings to default to share your personal information, changing terms and conditions to benefit their agenda, etc. They violate your privacy in manipulative ways. This has been such an issue, it have been a topic in the House and the Senate in the U.S. as well as becoming critical issues in other countries. Just wait until Facebook goes public this fall and see if your personal information gets any safer with Facebook. And you are wrong about the photo tagging thing in Facebook. I have photos tagged with my name, and I'm not even a Facebook user. How are do you expect I will get notified of that? And since when has Facebook offered technical support? I have never received a response from a Facebook support request. NEVER.

The fact that Facebook has momentum is not any reason to trust them with you info. You are seriously ignorant if you trust Facebook with your personal information. But like you said, people just don't want to switch, so you'll give up your rights instead. Good job. That will keep these corporations honest.

This post has been edited by kmadaus: 04 July 2011 - 08:54 AM

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This is just plain wrong. Maybe it's because of a security setting I adjusted at some point in the past, but I am notified any time I am tagged in a photo on Facebook.

This article was written by a PCWorld author, not a MacWorld author. I think that right there spells the difference and why the comments so far argue against what the author has stated in several points. We Mac users see things differently.

I'm a huge Google user, but I'm also painfully aware of their shortcomings and how, at the end of the day, they want search and ad traffic. That's the motivation behind anything they do. They need revenue flowing their way. They recently limited the Free Google Apps accounts to only 10 email addresses (down from 100 or something). They want you to pay to be able to create additional addresses. At $50/per year/per address, that makes it unreachable for some smaller companies and organizations. But Google doesn't care, they were giving away too much under the original plan and needed to cut the limits in order to increase revenues. Strange because their Gmail was ad-supported, so they were making money anyway.

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From two Macworld articles posted back to back, today.

kmadaus, on 04 July 2011 - 08:50 AM, said:

It is completely disingenuous to denounce either company's handling of its users' personal information while lauding the other. Neither of them is trustworthy in this area, and both have proved it publicly. If you're going to do the social media thing, you're not choosing between a devil and an angel, you're choosing between a couple of devils, and your choice is really which flavor you prefer.

I choose to stick with Facebook; you may choose to go with Google. Either way is fine if you're okay with your choice, but there are no "good guys" here, only businesses looking to make money off of you.

Also, how exactly do you think Google's tagging options would be any different than Facebook's for someone not using the service? Are they going to send you a letter telling you that you've been tagged?

This post has been edited by himbo: 04 July 2011 - 09:35 AM

Sometime I fail to understand the commentators on this site. Everytime someone does come with a well thought out product that doesn't have an Apple logo on it you try to doom it to failure .But let's face it, Facebook is a low down snooping eavesdropping social network as well and people are tired of it. So stop trashing other peoples stuff. Unless you can find a network that doesn't use those same tactic all of the naysayers stick to facebook and continue with the game of cyber stalking cat and social mouse.

scott2si, on 04 July 2011 - 08:36 AM, said:

As another poster stated, there are no angels here. As long as there's a division between Facebook and Google, I'll do my social networking with Facebook and my searching with Google. Neither has proven trustworthy of tracking everything I do online. If they decide to "partner," I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably just give up and be assimilated into the hive

kmadaus, on 04 July 2011 - 08:50 AM, said:

Fixed, because every online entity is a potential privacy threat and the only rights you have are the ones you agree to when you click "Agree" on the TOS acceptance page (which, conveniently, can be changed at will by the service provider).

Now, as for momentum, one look at the rise and fall of Friendster and MySpace is enough to prove that momentum won't guarantee long-term social networking success. But it's key to the rise. Users put the "social" in "social networking," so if all of your friends are on one platform, chances are you'll be there, too. But Google+'s privacy features directly address Facebook's glaring weak point. If Google is successful in pulling users away from Facebook, Facebook would be foolish not to respond with better privacy features, too. In fact, I'd be surprised if they aren't already working on them now to prevent an exodus of users.