Part of today’s class prep was doing a reading on the infamous Buy button we have all been anticipating, and well now its here. Mashable nicely covered some small aspects of the process in their article. I personally think, great now I can do it all in once because: 
A) I love social Media
B) I dig anything digital
C) I’m an avid online shopper
So bingo, there goes my piggy bank. Overall, this Buy button is obviously there to help businesses drive sales through the news feed. But immediately what appeared in my head will be the safety of this button. Facebook right now for me is a space where I communicate with my friends, and even to keep in touch with my grandparents. Its somewhat sacred as its a place where I share my personal information. 
I had never viewed Facebook as a direct e-commerce site. It makes sense as the algorithm already knows so much about each of us – but at the same time it could be a serious breach of personal data. Also how secure will my payments be? There is so much fraud online these days, that safety is really going to play a big part in making this a success. So I did some research and found this on Facebook’s page: “None of the credit or debit card information people share with Facebook when completing a transaction will be shared with other advertisers, and people can select whether or not they’d like to save payment information for future purchases”. Great – so Facebook is going amazon style.
I know I mentioned above that I will be a fan of this particular button, which I believe I will but at the same time, it seems like Facebook is becoming more and more commercialized. Let’s not forget, Facebook’s mission statement is: “To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” – so my question is, does e-commerce fit with this?
Image source: http://mashable.com/2014/07/17/facebook-buy-button/
Picture 1 source: http://socialfresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/facebook-buy-button2.jpg
Picture 2 source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-testing-a-buy-button-on-pages-and-ads-2014-7
Picture 3 source: http://mashable.com/2014/07/17/facebook-buy-button/