This post will help you understand the why your privacy on Facebook is vanishing (via Infographic of the Day @ Fast Company)

Facebook privacy settings are eroding. But the scope and speed of that transformation has happened fairly quietly--maybe because we've never before had an infographic that lays all the changes out.

The chart was a personal project created by Matt McKeon, who by day is a researcher at IBM's Visual Communication Lab (where Fernanda Viegas used to work).

It's concentric rings show the groups who can see a given slice of information, if you leave the default settings in place. Here's the service in 2005:

Facebook privacy infographic

In 2009: Facebook privacy infographic

And now:Facebook privacy infographic

Of course, these are obviously all default settings, and if you're concerned, you can readily change access to your profile.

But it does show that Facebook has transformed itself in the last five years from a service were privacy was an opt-out feature, to one where privacy is opt-in. As any behavioral economist will tell you, that single difference can massively affect the choices people make. Facebook might easily claim, "Hey! You can change things as you wish!" But in fact, they've created a massive shift in the privacy settings of Facebook as a whole.

Why would they make those changes? The less privacy there is in general, the more irresistible Facebook becomes, because you can snoop on other people far more. And figure out exactly what to sell them.

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Topics:

Design, infographic, infographic of the day, opt in, opt out, privacy settings, online profiles, facebook, mark zuckerberg, Innovation, Technology, Facebook Inc., Fernanda Viegas, Matt McKeon, IBM Corporation

This relates to an earlier post and again I encourage your to be wise in how much you put out on the web. I have long since realized that I live a "public life" as a pastor. But this does not mean that my family has to be exposed on the web.

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Learn how to control facebook instant personalization and other privacy settings (via Larry Magid @ Huffington Post)

I have been adjusting my presence on Facebook on a continuing basis. Now may be a time for you to adjust your privacy as well.

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Look at these "10 Companies With Social Responsibility at the Core" (via Advertising Age). It sure beats the "don't blame me" I have been hearing a lot lately.

The following 10 companies stand out as prime examples of how social responsibility can be productively coupled with sound strategies to advance goodwill, while building sustainable and impressive businesses. They provide the leadership to demonstrate how marketers can pursue both objectives simultaneously. As such, socially conscious companies have stepped up their efforts with increasing effectiveness and productivity. It is an impressive movement and one that invites society at large to do even more. Let's use these as examples for "how to get it done" so that we can effectively expand our efforts to give back.

1. Burt's Bees
2. GE
3. Method
4. The Body Shop
5. Starbucks
6. Ben & Jerry's
7. Kenneth Cole
8. Pedigree
9. Toms Shoes
10. Whole Foods

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Theodore Dalrymple invites us away from noisy living into profound quiet ("Silence, PLEASE" via inCharacter.org)

An Italian writer who had moved from Italy to the west coast of Scotland was asked why he had exchanged his glorious, sunny native land for those melancholy, rainy parts.

"It is simple," he replied. "In Italy, silence is very expensive. In Scotland, it is very cheap."

That silence should be viewed as a commodity of such rarity that it should be affordable only by the rich or the geographically isolated is a commentary on the noisiness of modern life.

This plea for silence in an era when the noise from teenagers loudly announces their presence is thoughtful and courteous. I wonder if we will be able to pay attention to the piece over the clicking of our keyboards.

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Ten of the greatest maps that changed the world as they changed our perceptions (via Mail Online)

The map included above marks in red the places of poverty in London. The section in gold marked areas of prosperity. The City Council was moved to action this redefinition of when it became clear that the least, the last, and the lost could be found around every corner.

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Where do you find good ideas? Seth Godin always has an answer and they are usually are simpler than my complicated plans.

Where do you find good ideas?

Do you often find ideas that change everything in a windowless conference room, with bottled water on the side table and a circle of critics and skeptics wearing suits looking at you as the clock ticks down to the 60 minutes allocated for this meeting?

If not, then why do you keep looking for them there?

The best ideas come out of the corner of our eye, the edge of our consciousness, in a flash. They are the result of misdirection and random collisions, not a grinding corporate onslaught. And yet we waste billions of dollars in time looking for them where they're not.

A practical tip: buy a big box of real wooden blocks. Write a key factor/asset/strategy on each block in big letters. Play with the blocks. Build concrete things out of non-concrete concepts. Uninvite the devil's advocate, since the devil doesn't need one, he's doing fine.

Have fun. Why not? It works.

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