Facebook connect – who do you trust with your identity?
Social networking giant Facebook has recently launched a new platform from which to continue it’s ever growing world domination: Facebook Connect.
The web 2.0 technology allows the social networking sites user base to authenticate themselves on many other websites via their Facebook log-in and interact with the site and Facebook simultaneously, posting comments and reviews on other sites with the option to also publish them in their own feed or send them to friends via Facebook. No longer will people need to remember the vast array of log-ins and passwords written on post it notes and on the back of envelopes strewn across their offices or constantly click the ‘forgotten your password’ link on sites – rather they can store them all in one place and use a singular global Facebook identity to access the rest of the web (or so the theory goes).
There is only one ‘you’ so having a single identity does make sense in some ways – it would certainly be easier than remembering many details… however, the downside is also clear. You are trusting your entire identity to one website’s security system. If someone were to gain access to this you would now be at a more serious risk of identity theft than ever before.
My first thought was that this was a horrible single point of internet security failure. But in a world where we need so many user name and passwords that half the population just use the same ones for everything – is this really a major issue? I can think of plenty of people who use the same pin number for all their cards as the ease it presents outweighs the risk. Similarly I can think of people I know who use the same details for various websites meaning their bank log-in is already the same as their email, mySpace and Facebook ones. And at this point in time Facebook Connect isn’t including highly sensitive information such as bank account log-ins as part of the program. Although I am sure that eventually they will want to roll out to such systems when they are established.
Obviously there are other solutions out their that offer a similar service – FireFox and Internet Explorer both offer a password storage facility which allows you to log-in to saved sites on that machine without authenticating. Many sites also offer short term log-in without re-entering your password such as Hotmail and eBay using day long cookies. But all of these solutions in common usage are tied to one computer. Facebook’s Connect platform allows for one user to have a global identity and log-in regardless of where they are. Being that millions of people already innately trust their personal data with Facebook it would seem that the early adopters would flock in their thousands to use it’s features. This is likely to cause worry for the advocates of sites such as OpenID – a third party independent solution offering universal internet IDs for social networking and other websites, especially since connecting your IDs with Facebook is as simple as clicking a widget – you do not feel like you are subscribing to a service, it is quite unobtrusive and people are likely to sign up almost without realising, where as solutions such as OpenID require pro-active effort on your part, Facebook Connect could creep into users web experience in a very natural progressive and passive manor.
Facebook Connect is, of course, not a selfless act. Implementing such a system costs a vast amount of capital and effort to get into usage. And Connect is in fact a lot more than just a universal ID for users. It offers companies the opportunity to create widgets similar to Facebook Apps for the platform. The system already allows users to post comments on websites and blogs using their Facebook identity – the content of which is also posted up on their Facebook profile. This means that Facebook will gain a lot more content and traffic from Connect’s usage as well as links out to and from other websites. The comments box – the first of many app’s to come – is Facebook branded which also gives them further exposure and encourages new sign-ups to the social network effectively using sites that install the app as free viral advertising and potentially making Facebook a contender for the standard way to comment on user generated content online – something companies and bloggers with existing comment systems might not like, although they may benefit from more traffic if their visitors use the system to post comments back to their Facebook feed.
From it’s humble launch in 2004 as a Harvard university social networking tool Facebook has grown into one of the largest worldwide success in the industry with a loyal user base of millions. It’s easy interface, ability to find old and new friends, photo tagging and event organisation tools made it an almost instant hit. Over the years new features such as instant messaging via Facebook Chat, games and advanced privacy options have led some users to almost abandon their email addresses and MSN messengers in favour of the site. It is from this background that the new platform, Facebook Connect has grown. And it is this trust and user base that will ensure their new venture in Connect succeeds where other similar schemes have failed. As always – apart from the increased traffic and content – ti will be interesting to see how Facebook intend to monotise this web 2.0 strategy. I can see how it would provide far more details for their targeted ads and also drive more new users to the site – but any direct revenue streams have yet to be introduced. And more importantly – how can other companies profit from these widgets by having their content reviewed and propagated across Facebook. There is a massive opportunity here for sites to gain access to Facebook’s user base by encouraging visitors to viral their content via comments and reviews and sharing them on Facebook.
You can read their official Facebook developer announcement here.
