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Valentina Zarya writes at Fortune Magazine that the top 2016 prediction for David Marcus,Facebook's vice president of messaging products, is the disappearance of the phone number and its replacement by applications like Facebook's Messenger. " You can make video and voice calls while at the same time not needing to know someone's phone number," writes Marcus. "You don't need to have a Facebook account to use Messenger anymore, and it's also a cross platform experience – so you can pick up where you left off whether you're on a desktop computer, a tablet, or your phone."
Jonah Berger, Wharton professor and author of "Contagious: Why Things Catch On" agrees. "For most of us, I think it's really hard to actually remember what someone's phone number actually is. We use our phones so often or we click on a button that has it. But if there was a test where you had to say, do you remember your best friends number or could you type in your best friend's number I think most of us would fail."
But not everyone agrees that Murcus' predictions are objective and disinterested. "It's all very well the company wanting to be the de facto Internet -- especially in places like India. But drier minds and eyes might wonder whether the wish to eradicate phone numbers has something to do with not everyone having yet given Facebook their phone numbers," says Chris Matyszczyk. "It may well be that phone numbers will disappear. Some, though, might wonder how making their disappearance a company theme squares with what Marcus claims is the ultimate goal: 'It's all about delight.' This one's easy. It's all about delighting Facebook."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Zz9zZ on Thursday January 14 2016, @10:55PM
People are operating more on a defensive nature. Encryption is only just beginning to enter the public consciousness as something besides SciFI / Military use, and up till recently your data was never guaranteed to be safe since it traveled through so many nodes and could be intercepted at any point and recorded digitally. Phone taps used to be more difficult and there was no simple bulk collection method, so it was never even an issue to the public.
So we have ignorance about the surveillance with some people assuming that only the "bad guys" are being spied upon and cataloged. If everyone knew that profiles are built for EVERY person, and that they become a part of every person's profile that they know... well we'd have some bigger backlashes, but it isn't covered by enough media. Next are those that act defensively because they know it happens but they don't feel there is anything they can do. They are the most guilty, because they accept it and promote the culture of acceptance even if they don't really like it. At the LEAST everyone should have a strong opinion of defiance and outrage.
Third? Hmmm, I guess those are the people that think its just peachy because they are saavy enough to mind their Ps and Qs, and many are participants in such systems. I saw a post by someone involved in financial transactions who said it was scary how much data he gets any time someone even thinks of making a transaction through his service (I guess it does a check before even allowing them to proceed) and THEN he said how "cool" it was. Personally I'd start working on plugging that hole and making everything encrypted and opaque where possible. No admin should be able to see anything beyond what is necessary, but I can't speak to the details and how to handle them. Nerd's with a power-hungry overlord mentality... ugh give me an island to send them to, or at least an ethics class from a reputable institution!
~Tilting at windmills~