The importance of the recent announcements of Facebook changes at the F8 conference cannot be under estimated and should be understood by individuals and businesses alike. For the individual you should be aware of how your data will now be shared and distributed across the web. Robert Scoble points out in a great post on privacy how he suddenly had access to all his friends music selections the day of the F8 conference. He speculates that few of his friends were aware that this data was now public in this way. Music favorites are only a small part of the big picture. What sites you like outside of Facebook can now be tracked and measured via Facebook. Your interactions across the web are now accessible by Facebook. The level you choose to share is ultimately up to you. You can always close your Facebook account as some Google employees are doing. The first step however is understanding what the changes now mean.
For business you need to re-calibrate your on-line strategies to make Facebook a greater consideration then ever before. Most businesses are incorporating Facebook into their digital roadmap in some way, however this planning needs to be ramped up to a new level. The access to user data, the ease of distribution of that data and the policies around this require some very structured and nuanced thinking. It’s no longer acceptable to dabble in Facebook or play around with social networking. You are now connected to your customers in ways that were impossible last month.
Whether you are interacting with Facebook on behalf of yourself or your company the ramifications just got a lot more complicated. Take the time to educate yourself on this new reality because the changes are coming fast and furious.