"They just wanted to meet some girls..."

Is everyone on Facebook? You may not want to be anymore if you read Ben Mezrich's The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook (further sutitled A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal).

A couple of things. This is a slim book, but there's two definite areas to cover here, so bear with me. First, there is the subject of the book, which is, of course, the founding of the social networking site Facebook by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg (who "came up" with the concept and did the programming) and Eduardo Saverin (who provided the seed money for the company's initial founding). All I can say after reading this one is, I have seen the future, and it is being run by the computer programmers (or, more particularly, the hackers), and that is a scary thought. Not because they're bad people. (In fact, they have reputations as being quite nerdy people, which you'd think would make me love them, and kind of does, in the same way I have a soft spot for engineers.) No, I'll admit I fear computer programmers* because I so completely don't understand what they do. And, here's the tricky parts: how they can do it so big, and they can do it so fast. Facebook grew from one college campus's worth of users to millions of users--all dumping their personal information into its servers--within a few months. There's something creepy about that.

And then let's consider why the company was formed. I don't actually know how much of this story is factual (please refer to the second part of this review), but if it actually started the way Mezrich describes it starting, that's kind of creepy too. I found it particularly hilarious that the call-out quote on the back of the book is "they just wanted to meet some girls." But here's the story as it starts on page 43:

"Maybe somewhere inside of Mark's thoughts, he knew that blaming it all on a girl who had rejected him wasn't exactly fair. How were this one girl's actions different from the way most girls had treated Mark throughout high school and college?...He was going to create something that would give him back some of that control, show all of them what he could do...

Maybe he grinned as he scanned through the pictures [from a Harvard online "facebook"] that were now spread across the screen of his desktop. Certainly, he recognized some of the guys, and even a few of the girls--but most of them were probably strangers to him, even though he'd passed them in the dining hall or on his way to his classes. He was probably a complete stranger to them, too; some of the girls, for sure, had gone out of their way to ignore him.

[from Mark's online blog, quoted in the text] 'I almost want to put some of these faces next to pictures of farm animals and have people vote on which is more attractive.'"

Sorry for the choppy nature of those quotes, but you do get the idea, right? Zuckerberg first created something called Facemash at Harvard not so much because he wanted to meet girls, but because he was pissed and wanted to get back at them by rating them next to farm animals (although he eventually he classed it up a step and went with asking visitors to his new site simply to rank Harvard girls against one another). And then he created that site...by hacking into the university's online (not public, mind you) and individual picture/facebook collections (evidently Harvard is divided into "houses" that each have their own networks) and downloading everyone's photos.

You think a guy like that, who is now CEO of a company that Microsoft once valued at over 15 billion dollars, is going to have any qualms about doing anything he wants with your personal information? I guess people like Facebook. But it gives me the heebies. The guy who created it gives me the heebies. All the programmers who work for him who create major new software "enhancements"--like video-sharing--over the course of TWENTY-FOUR HOURS (which Facebook has done) give me the heebies. Is all of this really worth putting your photo out there so people you didn't really like all that much in high school can find you?

Hmm, I was going to do both halves of this review today, but I think I have already gone on too long, and am heebied out. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting conclusion.

*The irony of typing this in a program provided for me by programmers, who have made it possible for Luddite idiots like me to shoot my mouth off online, is not lost on me.

Comments

[Tripp]

Yep, totally creepy that story. If you really want to get freaked out about data privacy, think about everything Google knows about you with the search histories, page visits (thanks to their ad services) and the email. Maybe they are tracking key strokes too!

On the happy side, the larger these organizations get the more the Internet norms, regulation, and the desire to make more money will curtail abuses of privacy.

[Citizen Reader]

Tripp,
Oh, I know, we all kissed data privacy goodbye years ago.

I do not like Google. Google Maps in particular also gives me the heebies. I'm sure they're tracing everything, including keystrokes, that's what we get for cheap bandwith.

Would you explain how the desire to make more money will curtail abuses of privacy? Seems like it would lead to more abuse--but I'll admit my understanding of all these matters is sketchy at best.

[Tripp]

Well, keep in mind this argument will hold for most people, some, the Enrons of the world, will avoid it. As companies get bigger, they get more risk averse. They build legal departments, privacy groups, marketing groups, all of which are shouting about different ways to avoid angering the customer.

Messing around with privacy, if discovered, and it is almost always discovered, will risk a big hit on revenue and customer loss. It is hard to justify abusing privacy, as you usually can't do it in a way that you are sure will make you money, whereas you are taking a risk that you will lose money.

What freaks me out more is how much is totally fine in today's environment. Suppose you want to sell your item to people who like to eat bananas. You can buy a list of people who buy a lot of bananas (with credit cards) and send them a personal message. That creeps me out.

[katharine]

I think advertisers were buying and selling "lists" of potential buyers from census information/surveys/polls long before the internet. The big difference now is the "free" availability of that information through a site like Facebook. I can't wait to tell my facebook-hating husband about this book CR, though he's not a big reader I'm sure this one will have him interested.

[Venta]

When I saw the book title, I was excited. I even put a copy on hold. Then I read the quote beginning "Maybe somewhere inside of Mark's thoughts..." I hope the whole book isn't written this way. Did he interview Mark to find out what he was thinking? Looking forward to tomorrow's blog.

[Jim]

I joined Facebook at the invitation of folks who "wanted to keep in touch."
It allows a little of that.
But, it bothers me in that it replaces letters and diaries with a kind of diary that has odd, unwritten norms. I haven't even done a half-assed anecdotal observation, but it seems that people use this like a diary/letter to friends but most submissions are written according to the unwritten rules I associate with advertisement: keep it punchy, upbeat, short and memorable. very quippy. Self-deprecation is ok. Obviously, this is owing to its very public nature. However, if this becomes a major means by which people record their life, and I worry for many it replaces diaries/letters/blogs, that's sad.

People's postings remind me of those Holiday/Annual letters people used to send out to a mailing list. It's a great way for families/friends to simulate closeness. I said a cranky version of all this on Facebook and was chastised by two friends for being like the old man who yells at the kids on his grass.

[Citizen Reader]

Katharine,
You're totally right. I'm pretty good at ignoring advertising, so selling all that info isn't what really bothers me about Facebook. I'm hard pressed to articulate what really does bother me, except that it just makes me nervous. I'd love to hear what your husband thinks of this book if he reads it!

Venta,
Zuckerberg did not consent to be interviewed. And yes, a lot of it is speculative writing such as that you quote. As noted in the next review, I really don't know that this is a good book. But it was fast, and it rather served to confirm my general dislike of Facebook. So I guess it was just pleasure reading for me, the way a lot of people read political books with which they already agree! (What can I say? I need some guilty pleasures too!)

Jim,
Yeah, let's face it, if I wanted to have small talk with a bunch of people, I'd leave the house. Facebook just seems like an online way to attend a very painful party where you just kind of report what you've been doing, ask people what they've been doing, and then everyone goes on their way without really talking about anything. Bleah.

Your comparison to the annual holiday letter is right on. And those things are just never that interesting, are they? You just come on over here whenever you want to be the cranky man yelling at the kids. We fully support that kind of thing here at CR.

[coach bags outlet]

We bless you with the remembrance of beauty.*