November 14th, 2012 § § permalink
This post is a response to Dylan’s post about the potential security concerns of UrtheCast.
UrtheCast, created by Sauder alumni Wade Larson and his brother, will be the first streaming HD video camera installed on the International Space Station (ISS); it is also a platform that allows users to playback the video. Larson has termed UrtheCast to be “like Google Earth, but better”. There is also a function that allows users to also see in realtime social media interactions from sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Dylan argues that this social media layer is an invasion of privacy, which I disagree with. The posts that UrtheCast shows are ones that social meda users have placed on a “public” setting. By having public settings, users already acknowledged that their posts can be seen by anyone with an internet connection. If one’s Twitter is private to followers or Facebook has higher security settings, that person’s posts will not show on the site in realtime.
I agree with Dylan that this social media layer will be off-putting to the general public. People with higher security settings will still feel unsafe about their information floating around the internet, and may dislike UrtheCast because of it. I sincerely hope they don’t, though, because UrtheCast is amazing and I can’t wait to see it take off.
October 7th, 2012 § § permalink
Referring to this article in The Globe and Mail, this post is a response to Vanessa’s post about the potential success and safety of Facebook’s new gift service.
This new online gift service is Facebook’s attempt at entering the e-commerce market and answering the skeptics that do not believe in the hype of Facebook advertising. It’s clear that Facebook, with it’s one-billion-and-growing users and large user information database, has the ability to turn a profit for companies looking to sell their products using this service. I disagree that Facebook could compete with sites like Amazon, Ebay, and even Etsy, who are seasoned e-commerce competitors that have a positive reputation for being reliable and safe.
The success of this new project is inevitably dependant on the safety of user’s private information on addresses, credit cards and the like. In the past, Facebook had several problems with security. There was a time when users’ mobile phone numbers were displayed publicly on their profiles after connecting to the site/application via their phone. Recently, Facebook also changed users’ displayed emails to ones with Facebook domains. These incidents make consumers wary of Facebook’s security, which may affect the future success of its service. Unless Facebook keeps user information private and utilizes a consumer-trusted method of payment like PayPal, the success of its gift service will be limited.