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People, it's time we create a "contextual persona" toolset for social networking. This is the widest crack in Facebook's armor that a rival could exploit...

fungi 16y ago
ok lets flesh the idea out. you have a single sign on that allows you to create multiple persona's e.g. public, family and friends when posting you would have the ability/requirement to tag content as being accessible to individuals in groups you have associated with each persona. sounds like a bit of a pain in the ass that would become very unwieldy beyond a few groups.
- quattrofan 16y ago
  What we need is a browser "persona" plugin, that allows you to swap in and out different accounts when it indicates you are on a FB enabled page.
  - wladimir 16y ago
    I've thought about that idea as well. Not only for facebook, but the same applies to Google and other trackers. Many sites link to your Google account. This is possible because your cookies can be shared/accessible by scripts communicating between sites (and checking referers). To isolate them you'd essentially need something like firefox profiles -- isolating cookies and credentials per persona. But to be more usable it needs to be more integrated into the browser somehow, and more lightweight, as running multiple firefox profiles is a bit clunky.
  - raghava 16y ago
    But would it still help? I mean, accessing multiple personas through the same browser on same machine would still be a giveaway, isn't it? https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf
    - quattrofan 16y ago
      Depends what you are trying to achieve, if we are talking a simple level about controlling what "side" of yourself your friends see I think the browser plugin is fine. If its about hiding your identity for security reasons then sure its not going to work, and also of course FB could use the techniques outlined to discover when you are doing this and block you.
  - gromy 16y ago
    Perhaps the problem is that we've grown accustom to lazily broadcasting our thoughts to all our friends when we should be broadcasting what we have to say to only a select relevant few?
- nitrogen 16y ago
  Facebook already has friend lists that allow you to accomplish some of this. Unfortunately you can't control the privacy settings of others in whose photos you are tagged.
drdaeman 16y ago
Old idea (Google had some presentation on this), but it quickly encounters problems such as UI complexity. Single identity is simple to manage and control, but multiple identities aren't. And when the worst thing possible happens - the identities start to partially overlap (and they really do!) - it becomes a nightmare.

fungi 16y ago

ok lets flesh the idea out. you have a single sign on that allows you to create multiple persona's e.g. public, family and friends when posting you would have the ability/requirement to tag content as being accessible to individuals in groups you have associated with each persona. sounds like a bit of a pain in the ass that would become very unwieldy beyond a few groups.

quattrofan 16y ago
What we need is a browser "persona" plugin, that allows you to swap in and out different accounts when it indicates you are on a FB enabled page.
- wladimir 16y ago
  I've thought about that idea as well. Not only for facebook, but the same applies to Google and other trackers. Many sites link to your Google account. This is possible because your cookies can be shared/accessible by scripts communicating between sites (and checking referers). To isolate them you'd essentially need something like firefox profiles -- isolating cookies and credentials per persona. But to be more usable it needs to be more integrated into the browser somehow, and more lightweight, as running multiple firefox profiles is a bit clunky.
- raghava 16y ago
  But would it still help? I mean, accessing multiple personas through the same browser on same machine would still be a giveaway, isn't it? https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf https://panopticlick.eff.org/browser-uniqueness.pdf
  - quattrofan 16y ago
    Depends what you are trying to achieve, if we are talking a simple level about controlling what "side" of yourself your friends see I think the browser plugin is fine. If its about hiding your identity for security reasons then sure its not going to work, and also of course FB could use the techniques outlined to discover when you are doing this and block you.
- gromy 16y ago
  Perhaps the problem is that we've grown accustom to lazily broadcasting our thoughts to all our friends when we should be broadcasting what we have to say to only a select relevant few?
nitrogen 16y ago
Facebook already has friend lists that allow you to accomplish some of this. Unfortunately you can't control the privacy settings of others in whose photos you are tagged.

drdaeman 16y ago

Old idea (Google had some presentation on this), but it quickly encounters problems such as UI complexity. Single identity is simple to manage and control, but multiple identities aren't. And when the worst thing possible happens - the identities start to partially overlap (and they really do!) - it becomes a nightmare.