Facebook fails and the death of the Floppy disc

28/04/10 posted by Liz Niland

Are you going to Kate’s party? While news outlets across the country were primed for another Corey Worthington-esque house party extravaganza, “Kate’s Party” has been revealed as a hoax. We don’t really understand what looked news-worthy enough about this Facebook event to garner it any more press than your average Facebook meme but, given the privacy-flack the social site has received of late, we can’t say we’re surprised it hit the headlines.

Reported by SMH as an example of the “risks posed by failing to double-check privacy settings on Facebook”, are there really that many social media users that could still fail at picking their privacy settings for a party? Apparently so. The new Open Graph API privacy concerns however, are much more worthy of print space. Users are given the option to opt-out of new features if they wish, but worryingly to some, opt-in is the default. Although this is what got Google into strife with the launch of Buzz, we think Facebook may have more luck getting away with it. Firstly Gmail users are some of the smartest, technologically savvy on the internet and will notice when they are getting the proverbial wool pulled over their eyes. Facebook users however, are made up of plenty of Mum-and-Dad teams and under-20s that wouldn’t know an open API from a big LOL. So yes, it might not be right (in a “do no evil” way) but Facebook can, have and will get away with a lot.

In ye olde hardware news, as we continue our quest to bury IE6 in the dark ages, those that still rely on the archaic browser are probably going to be the only ones mourning the official end of the Floppy disc. If you were born after 1990, there’s a pretty good chance you won’t remember them but, given demand hit its peak in 1995, Mum and Dad may still have a few dusty relics floating around the study. Not surprisingly, as CruchGear pointed out, the reason for the discontinuation is lack of demand.