Viral Facebook Apps Can Be a Real Turn Off for Good Business

Happy New Year. And all that.

I read this over at allfacebook.com and it got me thinking about the direction that viral apps are taking. It turns out one of the newer apps scumbags are using to get a hold of personal information relies on the vanity of self-conscious Gen Y-ers. In short, you install the app and it tells you how many people view your Facebook profile. I've seen it clog up my friends list on the 'book with a lot of people touting how many people are viewing their online profiles. Problem is, the numbers aren't true and you're susceptible to them getting all your personal information. On the one hand, I've got to give it to the developers, it's the perfect cover for getting information - but Facebook really ought to be doing something about it.

I don't say that because it's going to damage Facebook. For every five people that leave Facebook because they decide they're sick of privacy-related issues, seven more join it. There is no stopping it - but it could be damaging for other businesses in the long run. Though we're certainly more prone to sharing information and collaborating more than ever before as Rachel Botsman argues, after a while, if we're being duped like this our defences are going to rise. As ordinary businesses strive more and more to "harness the power of online", if we're being f--ked around with, in time we'll just make it harder on legitimate businesses whose messages could actually benefit us.

Not that it matters, really, 'cause I've had 2,938,018 profile views. In the last second. Malware FTW!