Today I quit Facebook. I’ve been mulling over it for quite some time now and, in a moment of impulsiveness, I clicked the delete button.

It was time to stop complaining and put my money where my mouth is (was?). I’d actively withdrawn from it anyway, so why not take the final step and leave?

Of course my account won’t actually be deleted for another fortnight, that’s just how FB rolls. They’re worried that I might change my mind in that time so have, very thoughtfully, decided need a bit of a cooling off period.

So why did I do it?

We all know Facebook are essentially a company that trades in a very valuable commodity – highly targeted marketing. Facebook know a lot about you and sell that information to anyone that wants it. Like any of these services, that’s the trade off. You get access to the world largest social media service with a user-base of around 800 million and in return Facebook sells information about you to advertisers. (So why do I keep getting weight loss ads served to my Facebook page?)

So the question is: do I feel that is a fair trade. Is it worth commodifying my personal information so that I can keep up to date with what my friends just ate for dinner? Truthfully, it is up to a point, and up until today I’ve been happy to pay that price. I’m living in London at the moment and the vast majority of the people I know and love are living in Melbourne so I want to see pictures of them and their kids.

I’m also someone that likes to think of themselves as an activist. Whist I’m not as active as I used to be, Facebook is a really handy tool for an activist. When I put together martinfergusonisaratbastard.com it got about 300 hits in the first day – most of which came from Facebook. So I’m reluctant to let that go.

Finally, as far as my reluctance to leave Facebook goes, I’m a web developer. Facebook is central to the online world so I feel like I should do my best to keep up with what is happening on Facebook, at lease from a technological perspective.

So, with all these good reasons to stay on Facebook, why would I leave?

Ownership, commodification and privacy, to name three. Facebook has never really been satisfactory in any of these areas and I’ve finally had enough.

Ownership
I’ve always disliked iPhoto and iTunes. Their default status (and I know you can turn this off) has the program managing your files. That bothers me. They are my files and I’ll do with them as I please thank you very much. My first MP3 player was a 40 Gig iAudio that was essentially just a hard drive. It would simply play every song in the folder you navigated to. It had a horrible interface and was quite clunky but I loved it. It played every format under the sun (critically, including ogg) and I could move files on and off it as I pleased without a program or anything like that. They were my files, why wouldn’t I be able to?

The same can be said for Facebook. I can’t just take my data and go home. I can’t just get a copy of every photo and video I’ve uploaded and do with it as I please.

In contrast, I’m heavily integrated with Google. They aren’t perfect either but at lease with Google I can take my data and go elsewhere whenever I wish. Ironically, it will be when Google take this capacity away from me that I’ll feel the need to leave.

There are also intellectual property issues here that are probably beyond the preview of this post. But who owns the copyright over a photo that I upload to Facebook or a status update? What can the images I’ve uploaded be used for? I don’t have control over that and, fundamentally, I should.

All of this combined with Facebook’s persistant changing of the rules and defaulting everything to public has eroded my faith.

Commodification
Of course Google commodifies my personal information as well, but with Facebook it seems far more intrusive. The information is less anonymised, more readily available for sale and just seems more insidious than other services. Surely this will only get worse with it multi-billion dollar Initial Public Offering

I don’t think it is necessarily problematic to sell things in a targeted manner to users of a service if they have opted in. It’s something I would consider exploiting for Sommelier.net.au. But Facebook take this too far. The information that can be bought by advertisers is far more detailed than I am comfortable with a corporation having.

Which ties into my final point.

Privacy
Facebook knows a lot about you. A lot. A terrifying amount. More than I am happy for any one person, let alone corporation, to know.

I’m a strongly libertarian sort of person. Civil liberties are central to everything I believe in and key to protecting one’s rights is privacy.

Facebook knows too much about me already and has a tendency to broadcast that information whenever it can. It’s key to their business model.

In addition, I don’t have enough trust in a corporation like Facebook to protect my privacy. It isn’t in their interest to do so. I think it’s safe to say that there isn’t a government department in the world that knows as much about me as Facebook and they are far less accountable. Hell, the FBI have admitted to being able to make staffing reductions due to the amount of information they can now get just by looking someone up on Facebook.

Moreover, Facebook track you by stealth when you’re away from the site. Every ‘Like’ button on a website is another little spy for Facebook. And Facebook aren’t playing fairly in this realm. You simply shouldn’t be able to track someone once they have left that site. But Facebook do it incessantly, even once you’ve logged out. Hell, they keep ‘shadow’ profiles of people that don’t have Facebook accounts. To quote George HW Bush, “this aggression will not stand.”

As part of my discontent with Facebook’s surveillance techniques, I will also be removing ‘Like’ Buttons from any website I run. Especially Your Voice in House so people can use the service without a fear that they will be tracked by a corporation. It’s only ego-metrics anyway.

So that’s it. I’m sick of being sold, I’m sick of being spied on and I’m sick of not being able to control my own data. I cannot tolerate this social compact any longer. I quit. I’ll miss knowing what my friends are up, but they’ve all got my email address, they all know my blog and they are all welcome to follow me on Twitter. Hell, Google me if you need.

So who knows. Maybe I’ll utilise that 14 day window and reactivate my account. Maybe I create a new account with a nom de plume so i can continue to spy on ex-girlfriends friend’s children as they grow. But for now at least, I’m feeling quite liberated.

I started the new-year well. On New Year’s Day I drove form Antwerp in Belgium, across the Netherlands to Aachen, just over the German boarder. It’s home to the ‘Imperial Cathedral’ and I had wanted to see it ever since seeing the list of the original 1978 inductees to the UNESCO World Heritage list on the wall of a salt mine just outside Krakow Poland (which also happens to be on the list). Its an astonishing building, was well worth the drive and I can now say I have been to all three European sites granted World Heritage listing in the initial round of allocation. Tick.

So 2012 is feeling pretty good for me on a personal level at least. I’ve got pretty high hopes for the year. While last year was one of great adventure, it was also one of extraordinary loss.

I was tempted to follow in the footsteps of more than one blogger and bemoan ‘the state of the union’ – rightly so I might add, this shit isn’t getting any better – but I’m left with a great sense of optimism for the year ahead. Having relocated to London, established a pretty sweet crew and have the rest of Europe on my door step things are looking good. Between now and Summer, I’ve got 3 confirmed overseas trips and up to 5 on the cards.

I’ve got a good job which has cemented a career change that has been on the cards for some time now and there are no shortage of possibilities for what the year may hold.

In 2012, as the shit hits the fan with the welfare state being dismantled in the UK, the eurozone collapsing and Australian politics desperately searching for yet another way to assert its irrelevance, I fully intend to milk this puppy for all it is worth.

Oh yeah, and while I’m at it, ‘tip of the hat’ to the Occupy movement and any other general shit stirrers that don’t have a rightwing or nationalist agenda. I hope you guys keep it up in 2012 – someone has to.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here before but a couple of my coding buddies and I have set up a company called Spire Software. This is just a very quick note that we’ve finally got a proper Spire Software site up.

It will improve with time but for now it’s a lot better than the ‘coming soon’ page we’ve had there for eternity.

I suspect I’ll start putting my ‘tech’ posts over on the Spire Blog and keep this blog as more of a personal blog but we’ll see.

It’s time to come clean. A couple of weeks ago I resigned from my job at the Health and Community Services Union to go on a massively underfunded trip through Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe before settling down in the UK for a year or two.

It’s a move that is exciting, terrifying and much anticipated. It hasn’t been easy keeping to from you all this time dear readers

I leave on December 20 with a one way ticket to Tanzania where my better half and I will be greeted in Stone Town, Tanzania by my family.

I’ll then travel with my partner and family through Tanzania and Kenya for 5 weeks before leaving my family and flying with my partner to Cairo to travel through the Middle East and Eastern Europe until the money runs out and we have to fly to the UK to work (Youth Mobility Visas pending mind you – fingers crossed).

The timing is right in so many senses. In a practical sense I turn 31 in a month’s time so that’s the cut off for access to a Youth Mobility Visa for me. But I’m also getting to a stage where I feel like it’s time for a new adventure and I’ve been aching to get back to Eastern Europe for 4 or 5 years now.

My professional focus also seems like it is shifting more an more. I’m really enjoying doing a bit of freelance web development work and I’m hopeful that I can get some work while I’m travelling to keep myself afloat a little longer. I’m also hopeful that I can make a living doing freelance work once I get to the UK.

But for now I’m packing up the house I have loved and lived in for the past 2 years before moving back in with my Mum for the last month before we fly out.

There’s so much I’m going to miss and I seem to have had some really fantastic times with friends lately which is making me realise just how much I’m going to miss everyone. It’s also going to be a fucking rad!

It is still 2 months away (almost to the day) and I’ll probably have reason to blog again before I leave but be prepared for this to turn into a travel blog. And if you need any website work done at the moment, I’d love to help you out because I could really do with a bit of pocket money.

A dear friend sent me the following in facebook (edited for relevance):

15 Albums in 15 Minutes, the rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Only one album per artist. Fifteen albums you’ve heard that will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes! No real order.

This is what came out for me. It was not easy:

1. Fresh Fruit for rotting Vegetables – Dead Kennedys
2. Kinda Blue – Miles Davis
3. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
4. Tougher Than Leather – Run DMC
5. Entroducing – DJ Shadow
6. Cold Cut – Let Us Play
7. Dave Brubeck – Time Out
8. Angel Dust – Faith No More
9. Demon Days – Gorillaz
10. Kristen Hersh – Hips and Makers
11. PJ Harvey – Rid of Me
12. Primus – Pork Soda
13. Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet
14. Roni Size – In the Mode (although possibly Replica)
15. Sonic Youth – Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star

I know that there will be albums I will regret having left off. Also, I tried to make sure that each areas of my musical tastes were represented.

I’ve launched a new website which I’m pretty excited about.

In case you hadn’t guessed, you can find it at: http://sommelier.net.au.

It’s is a free website that allows you to keep track of your wine cellar, add tasting notes and watch bottles as they age.

It is designed to accomodate all wine lovers without the wank that is too often associated with wine.

I hope you like it – get in there and use it!

Just in case the post below doesn’t entice you to come along to the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice’s screening of RiP, hopefully the trailer will:

To help Launch the Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice launch its latest campaign: En Masse, we are screening the exciting new documentary on remix culture: RiP: A remix manifesto.

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers. The film features mash-up musician Girl Talk, Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, Brazil’s Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow.

Watch the trailer at: http://blip.tv/file/1329162

Download the flyer at: http://democracyandjustice.org.au/images/enmasseflyer.pdf

When: Tuesday 20th October at 7:30 pm
Where: Horse Bazaar, 397 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Cost: A very reasonable $10 / $5

About our new campaign, En Masse:

The Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice’s En Masse Campaign has three main aims. To Rethink Copyright in our digital age; to Reclaim culture by encouraging people to step outside the current intellectual property regime; and to provide the tools to Redo cultural outputs, remixing them into something new.

The Australian Centre for Democracy and Justice, in conjunction with Chinchilla Media are running workshops on Open Source Solutions to Creative Problems, as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival

Every Tuesday night for the next 3 Tuesdays at the Horse Bazaar.