You like? You buy? Friends aren’t the only ones you share with. escapedtowisconsin

“Facebook is currently trialling a range of new buttons that could influence how your data is harvested.

“The trials have been construed by some observers as a response to the corporation’s anaemic share price, media interest in competitors such as Pinterest and Twitter, and forecasts that many users will move to the ‘next new thing.’

“It was not so long ago that governments exhorted people to button their lips, because someone might surreptitiously exploit sensitive information.

“There are times when you can have too much sharing and when what you reveal – for example the ‘amusing’ photo or indicator of a relationship – comes back to haunt someone else, rather than just the person who should have kept it buttoned up.

“Facebook of course is promoting the trials as evidence of its commitment to ongoing improvement of the ‘Facebook experience.’

“Reality is a bit more complicated. Facebook is an embodiment of the attention economy – an economy whereby, faced with information overload, we no longer read, we skim.

“It is also a portal through which consumers provide information about themselves and – by inference – about their friends.”

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