Basically it became quite apparent that Facebook is in fact, a business, and that your so-called personal data was for sale. To economists and investors, this was no surprise at all. They all expected Facebook to make a genuine attempt to make money at some point, and what better way than demographic targeted advertising?
When it came to the users though, the backlash to the recent changes and integration of Facebook across multiple sharing networks has been less than mixed. Its been negative. There have been constant tweets and articles written about Facebook's complete disregard for our personal data.
The claims are valid. Suddenly, its not just your friends that are viewing your updates and profile, its their friends, strangers and marketers - unless you change your settings. The setting changes aren't complex, they are quite simple in fact - but the sudden notification by Facebook is what irked a lot of people. They started to worry about their personal data. All along though, within all the complaints and stress about personal data, people lost sight of a couple of realities.
First off--what is data? For the answer to that question, I turn to Loren Feldman of 1938 Media. In this video, he explains exactly what data is.
To sum up, data is what you put in the computer, that goes to the internet and either gets lost or sold. That is what data is. Its inevitable and a side effect of doing business on the internet. Its also a side effect of doing pleasure on the internet, and that is where the adjective personal comes in.
So what exactly is personal on the internet? Well, that's easy. Nothing. Not a damn thing. You may think it is, but it isn't. That's not just paranoia talking - someone, somewhere has access to your personal data. From the I.T. guys running the bank servers, to the advertisers buying it from your email client, to Facebook opening it up for the world to see.
Don't even get me started on privacy. Its the internet. Not a shrinks office. Though that's debatable sometimes.
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