Most of my friends have Facebook accounts, and none can understand my constant refusal to join them there. Beside the fact that I don’t have any burning desire to be stalked by ex’s from the 80’s, and I don’t care that my kindergarten teacher is now teaching fuzz appreciation to unloved muppets, and I object to any service that makes you use your full legal name in a public forum, my primary objection to Facebook and the auxiliary services it offers are the draconian and absurd privacy policies of both the parent site and the companies which operate using their platform.

For instance; Zynga, the creator of all those FB games,  has this lovely gem tucked away in their TOS, which applies to users who just get spammed by their friends – you don’t even need to play their FB games for them to legally be allowed to sell all of your data.

“You grant to zynga the unrestricted, unconditional, unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual fully-paid and royalty-free right and license to host, use, copy, distribute, reproduce, disclose, sell, resell, sublicense, display, perform, transmit, publish, broadcast, modify, make derivative works from, retitle, reformat, translate, archive, store, cache or otherwise exploit in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Content to which you have contributed, for any purpose whatsoever, in any and all formats; on or through any and all media, software, formula or medium now known or hereafter known; and with any technology or devices now known or hereafter developed and to advertise, market and promote same.”

Seriously?  Why would anyone agree to this?  It’s insanely egregious.  Zynga’s CEO Mark Pincus admits he “did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues” and that scamming users was part of social gaming company Zynga’s revenue model right from the start.

Take for example the “free game cash for taking a survey” scams on Facebook.  The way this works is that you have to give your cell phone number and get the results via a text message. This is what sets up the scam – by simply opening the text message to see their survey ‘results’ the unwitting user is automatically subscribed to a $9.99 recurring charge service. (read Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell for more examples of how they hide the terms of use by making them the same color as the page background so you can’t see them.)

Arrington’s three-part exposé of the exploitative business practices of Zynga, other big social gaming sites, and the social networks that host the games are must read material for every online user:

• Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell (Oct. 31, 2009)
• Social Games: How the Big Three Make Millions (Oct. 26, 2009)
• Zynga Takes Steps To Remove Scams From Games (Nov. 2, 2009)

I am pro-business when business is pro-consumer.  Internet companies make money in three ways – selling access to you, selling information about you, and now, by deliberately scamming you. Your biggest risks online are not contact, conduct or content, in spite of the frequency in which these are cited. Your greatest risks come from a lack of understanding.

• Failure to consider what information you share and making appropriate decisions about whether information should be shared.
• Failure to identify trustworthiness – of people, products, services, Web sites, content, and businesses.
• Failure to understand predatory behavior in its broadest sense, including bullies, stalkers, scammers, hackers, ID thieves, exploitative companies, and other predators.

Online you hold the aces. Collectively, you have the power to bankrupt any one – or all – of these companies; Zynga, playfish, Playdom, Facebook, MySpace, etc. in short order. How?

Quit using them until they agree that scamming their customer base shouldn’t be part of their business model. You have a right to an online experience free of corporate exploitation.

See also:

• Facebook changes privacy policy, but removes granular control from power users.
• “Horrible Things” Slink Back Into Zynga
• Facebook game offers slammed as scams
• Zynga draws sanction from Facebook
• Time Magazine asks Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?