TechnoSlab

Today Wolframalpha has launched a new self analysis tool which is basically a Facebook app that analyzes and visually represent a lot of information about your Facebook profile, friends etc.

Almost everyone I meet uses Facebook and they share a lot of personal information about themselves on their timeline knowingly or unknowingly. This tool helps you find out how much information you've been sharing lately.  I tried it myself and was amazed to see how brilliantly this app visualizes so much of my personal information. I'd recommend it to everyone who uses Facebook frequently and wants to know how much they share.

To generate a report youself, you will have to go to www.wolframalpha.com and write Facebook report in the input box. Alternatively click on this link: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=facebook+report

A fragment of my Facebook Report generated by Wolframalpha

First time users will be asked to authenticate the app and register on the website before there Facebook report is generated. Authentication and registration process is a breeze and shouldn't take more than a minute. Once done, your Facebook report will be generated and displayed. Have fun looking through it.

Earlier, users who liked a brand page or had something interesting to say about them could possibly become part of what Facebook calls "Sponsored Stories".

Sponsored stories basically highlight user's experience with a brand to promote it further. Facebook uses a person's name and face while crafting such sponsored stories and that's where problem arises. Till now a user had no control over whether his/her identity could be used to create such adverts.

While some users who became part of sponsored stories enjoyed the spotlight, others were annoyed and some even embarrassed. Last year, five angry members of the social networking site had filed a legal case against the tech giant after their faces were used in sponsored stories and they couldn't do anything about it.

The case has come a settlement where Facebook agrees to allow users the chance to opt out of their profiles being used in these adverts for at least the next two years.

The settlement rules: “Facebook will create an easily accessible mechanism that enables users to view the subset of their interactions and other content that have been displayed in Sponsored Stories. Facebook will further engineer settings to enable users, upon viewing the interactions and other content that have been used in Sponsored Stories, to control which of these interactions and other content are edible to appear in additional Sponsored Stories.”