Together we can!

In one of my previous blogs, "Stop ignoring the important stuff" I spoke about our ability to sign up to things without actually reading the terms and conditions. I was trying to prove how stupid a thing to do that is, we wouldnt buy a car or a house without reading the terms and conditions would we? So why do we sign up to all these online websites like Facebook and Twitter without actually knowing what we are signing up to? When writing that blog I actually ended up frightening myself, how could I be so stupid to sign away rights to my photos status' and everything about my life without even realising it? I dont know, but we all seem happy enough to do it.
Well what if I suggested starting a campaign, a campaign in which we created new polocies, polocies that suited us and not them. Together we can make a start to changing the way in which these internet sites work! Sure we all want to use Facebook and Twitter by should we use them at the expense of our safety and at the expense of things that we should own?
http://www.nyccounsel.com/business-blogs-websites/who-owns-photos-and-videos-posted-on-facebook-or-twitter/
If reading that doesn't worry you, Im not sure what will! It is clear to me that changes need to be made, but where and when will they start?
Polocies for social websites should amost certainly be changed. When signing up we shouldnt have to sign our rights away, and in my opinion the way to make this change is to campaign. If the awareness for what we have actually agreed to becomes greater then the ability to want to change these polocies should increase. Although we are partially to blame for accepting these polocies, they are also very good at tricking us, and its time we put a stop to it and campaign against giving away our rights.

Stop Ignoring The Important Stuff

In an earlier blog I brought up the question of us not really knowing our privacy rights with sites such as Twitter and Facebook. So when we agree to their terms and conditions without actually reading them, what are we actually signing up to?
I'll happily admit that I signed up to Facebook because all my friends had started using it and it was the cool thing to do... but i'll also admit there is no way I actually read all the terms and conditions that I agreed to before I created my account, and i'd almost bet my life that half the people using Facebook, like me, didn't read the terms and conditions. So when were posting all our photos and status' about what were doing, how do we know we are in control? We dont.
http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
Above is the link to the terms and conditions that everyone has to agree to before their account is created. Some of them, to me, are quite disturbing and has certainly made me think twice about what I post and upload because in effect anything we do upload Facebook then owns.
"When you publish content or information using the Public setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture)." This is just one of the terms and conditions that we agree to, so not only do we allow Facebook to use our information and pictures we also allow people off of Facebook to do the same.
I found a video which puts into perspective the full terms and conditions to facebook, and it shows that maybe we should be a tad more apprehensive about Facebook and similar sites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfY_HTzd_4U
I think maybe its time to do something about what we have all agreed to. What would happen if we all deleted our accounts until the terms and conditions were changed so that we could really trust Facebook? They would surley have no choice but to make some changes to get users back. It certainly seems that it is something people should be thinking about, to protect themselves and all their information that we naively publish.

The Machine is using us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE This video brings up important and thought provoking points about the internet and Web 2.0. I'll be honest, before i begun looking in depth into the world wide web and the internet, it was just a piece of technology and software that was there for me to use, i used it every single day, possibly every hour, but i never really thought about how it worked or what i was actually doing on it. Kevin kelly believes that we are the ones teaching the Web, he believes we live inside Web 2.0. By saying this he means we are writing the software for the internet, everytime we tag a photo or search for something we are teaching the web what to do. Our questions programme the machine to answer the questions. Therefore Kevin Kellys theory that the machine is using us seems to be a sensible one, we are giving the answers to the machine.
The Web is an unusual yet wonderful thing, a thing that people dismissed when it first came about, nobody visualised that it would become as big as it is or that we would use it religiously, as we do. Since then the Web has changed and progressed massivley to socities needs, which is why today we now have Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is all about connecting people, whereas Web 1.0 was about connecting computers and technology. Todays society uses Web 2.0 for social needs, for social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Gradually we have transformed the web to fullfill our needs and change what the web is there for. Although there seems to be dangers that surround web 2.0 we are using it more frequently than ever. Issues of ubiquity, privacy, property and politics all seem to an issue Web 2.l0 faces. In terms of privacy we seem to post our lives on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, but how do we actually know that what we are posting on there is private? Maybe this is a debate for a future post...