Around the Office: Opening the Curtain of Online Privacy, 3D Printing, and Vanishing Facebook Likes

Brent and Daveed are excited for the possibilities of a 3D-printing revolution now that the price of this technology – which has been around for years – has fallen. This will have huge creative potential for printing out original designs and products, and inevitable legal hassles over counterfeit products created using 3D printers. Still, it is exciting to see if this technology will evolve from the realm of large corporations and dedicated hobbyists to the mainstream.Brent was impressed with a clever new video that shows a supposed clairvoyant who divulges to random people eerily personal information fed to him from Internet researchers behind a curtain. We were reminded of the scene from the Wizard of Oz where the seemingly omnipotent Wizard pleads to Alice and her friends: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” right before his deception is found out. Similarly, the fake clairvoyant pulls back a curtain to reveal his illusion, and how much of our lives are accessible online.

Scott had been noticing that many Facebook business Pages were quickly losing friends. It seems that this was partly the result of Facebook’s plan to purge fake accounts and Page Likes. Page Likes that were ill-gotten (through malware, hijacked accounts, user deception, or bought in bulk from so-called “Like Farms”) will likely to be culled to help Facebook remain a place for actual people.