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Facebook Adds 96 Million Shares, Will Privacy Get Worse After IPO?
AlistairCharlton writes "Facebook has made yet another amendment to its S-1 filing, adding a further 96 million shares, pushing its initial public offering up to a potential maximum of $18.4bn (£11.5bn). In what is the eighth amendment to its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook has also increased the number of shares allowed for over allotment, up from 50.6 million to 63.2 million." Facebook will have a lot of pressure to increase revenue after it goes public. jfruh writes in with a story about how that will impact their privacy policies. "There's been a steady drumbeat of panics over the past few years involving how Facebook uses the personal information you give it; nevertheless, someday you'll look back at 2012 as the golden age of Facebook privacy. That's because, once Facebook has its IPO, it'll come under huge pressure from the markets to extract more revenue from its business. And with display advertising not generating game-changing amounts of money, Facebook has only one valuable resource: your data, which is going to be monetized as hard as possible."
Will it make privacy worse?
Yes.
And here's why:
Read the fine print of the IPO - it says FB "will do evil whenever it can".
Now if that is not a slap in the face of Google, I don't know what is.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I can picture your ads now: "Do you have compulsive lying disorder? Get relief now, ask your doctor about VeriPilium."
Indeed, because the only other accusation is that Google is reading the old man's mind.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Ya, only if you know HISTORY. But this about the future, man. Progress. You have to look forward. Seize the day. BUY BUY BUY!
Step 1: Change the subject: Let's not discuss X, let's discuss Y instead!
Step 2: Play the 'victim.' - waaa, those evil privacy advocates are ruining teh internetz!
Step 3: Point the finger - 'we may be bad, but we're not as bad as *gasp* Google!
Step 4: If all else fails, insult the audience - "This could also very well be the reasons why geeks are bullied - if you treat other like shit, you will be treated like shit."
Well played, sir, well played...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I thought exactly the same thing when Google went IPO and the Investment Industry was pushing a stock price of $75. I convinced our investment club (remember those?) that they didn't have a business plan, had no obvious source of sufficient revenue to sustain the share valuation that was being discussed, and that we shouldn't buy in.
8 years later, it's above $600.
And the worms ate into his brain.