'Open Sesame'

Posted by Howard
on May 15th, 2010

‘Open Sesame’ was a magical term when I was a kid. I passed it on to my kids.

It would be wonderful in today’s world of computers if you could control your information online with a few magical worlds.

Not possible.

When I get on the family computer late at night, I am logged into everything. Facebook, Club Penguin, Twitter. Logging out is not in the family vocabulary.

It used to be you told kids ‘don’t talk to strangers’.

Try explaining any social sites ‘terms of use’ to a 12 or 13 year old.

This week, Facebook finds itself in it’s quarterly shitstorm. It will pass. British Petroleum just ‘oiled down’ half the east coast…even that will pass.

There is good reason for most users to be pissed at Facebook. My favorite rant comes from Dana Boyd . Facebook is pretty evil. I don’t know what people expected, but obviously many thought Facebook would remain Disney Land of data and leave the evil to Equifax and Transunion because you have to give them the information (we do).

Fred Wilson says the ‘middle ground’ is treachorous with respect to privacy .

Me, I have seen pretty much everything on the web, especially since I talk about stocks and money. Nothing surprises me.

Right now, Facebook can cost me a job. Luckily, I have never had to rely on a social network for work. If I did, I think my time in would help me. When Facebook can start kicking me out of my home, even country, I will worry.

Talking to my friend Om Malik for a while this week and he knows quite well the march Facebook is making. They are NOT going to stop. They are the machine. Facebook’s new internal slogan is ‘Washington…we ‘like’ you!

Credit is where Facebook is going and that will be a whole new level of power. For 99 percent of you with bad credit, look at that as an opportunity and start being nice to your Facebook friends.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.