Privacy

We received some feedback some time ago stating that our service was doomed because it is not useful for a single user but becomes more and more useful the more people use it. Thus the critical number of users would never be reached. Counter arguments that immediately come to mind are of course: MySpace, digg.com, ebay.com, ... . Also, mixing private and public use might not always be desired.

I deleted my last.fm account two days ago and created a new one using a random (seriously, I used a random number generator) username. I did it because I was fed up with my buddies judging my taste in music, like: "Uh, I saw you listened to ... today, how come?" etc. To emphasize the point I want to make: I know someone who listens to music knowing that it shows up on last.fm to make his profile look cooler.

Don't get me wrong: I love last.fm, I like their radio, their recommendation system, the ability to meet people with a similar taste in music. It is not last.fm's fault that I told my real world friends about my virtual profile. However, once I did this, my privacy was massively invaded as the border of my private room where I listen to absurd music from time to time and a brutally transparent profile on last.fm vanished. I think this was because I was not really aware that my player sent all my tracks to last.fm even though I configured it to do so. I think del.icio.us faces a similar problem, as it is useful both privately (accessing my bookmarks everywhere) and publically (finding bookmarks many people like).

The point I am trying to make is: I think to some extend our service may have a similar problem: You provide heaps of personal data if you use it a lot like I do. So if you don't want anybody to judge you by your shopping desires: Use a handle which cannot be traced back to you. Cheers.