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In many business areas there is a very great danger of online colossus's (sp?) like Google, Amazon Ebay or Facebook encroaching on existing startups. I work in the Online Recruitment sector, and we live under the threat of Google deciding to get into this market, and wiping out Monster, Jobsite and the rest. FourSquare may not be sufficiently established to withstand Facebook's play here, such that FB needn't even consider buying it, preferring to obliterate instead.

I see that this will happen more regularly, and could potentially stifle many new developments and businesses.

As I blogged recently, FB's changes to it's Privacy Settings, in favour of advertisers, shows how difficult it is to stop their onward march.

Am I the only one who thinks the world of social networking is getting scarier by the day? On the one hand we have people complaining about the erosion of civil liberties and freedom yet nobody seems to be worried about the likes of Facebook being nice and cuddly and telling us that wanting to know the colour of your toilet roll is ok-and where your using it?

God help us all.

I understand why many think this could be quite dangerous for their privacy, but it seems to me that this is pure business, and not an attempt to get into people's lives. It's true, the Internet has changed the rules on anonimity and we are more exposed as technology advances, but this isn't necessarily bad, it's just different.
Regarding Facebook Places Deals,I find it weird that this service seems to be used by large brands only, at least so far, when it could be great for smaller businesses seeking to attract local customers.
Maybe if this works, Facebook will start charging it and making some big money with a really profitable service for once. I found this interesting analysis on the issue on this site: [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

Anyone who willingly provides personal data of any type to a business that operates in a country without proper privacy and data protection legislation needs their head examining! (That is do not post anything on Facebook!)

Commenter number 2 makes an extremely valid point. Many people were afraid of the potential for the government to monitor our activities through the increasing centralisation of personal data - with the personal ID card being a particular focus of these fears. My own opinion is that as we are asked submit even more of our personal information we are in real danger of giving a dubiously regulated private sector far more access to out private lives than even the government are asking for. We all know that the private sector has no use for this data other than to use it for profit and we should all be extremely wary of the long term implications of these so called 'social' schemes. I fear the mega corporations even more than I fear our increasingly undemocratic government.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

From the civil liberties point of view I do see a difference between the government taking liberties by demanding information and people giving it voluntarily.
The bigger worry is the situation in the states (and I suspect less well publicised but here as well) that this information can be forced from the company by law enforcement. The people that give facebook information should understand that the US can just take that information.
Obviously that is also the case with other places - they can be hacked as well. You will notice that I sign in here as 'anotherfakename', all the details provided are also rubbish - why - simply the ´óÏó´«Ã½ doesn't need the information and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ can't ensure its security against hacking, government or stupidity, so the ´óÏó´«Ã½ doesn't get it. This sort of 'registering' is common on websites, and equally pointless and also completely open to circumvention.

Simple one really, if you can turn it off and be sure it's off - good.
If not, i shall be leaving facebook.

Oh great. Ads on my phone now? How long before our actual conversations are interrupted by radio-style ads? Personally, I do not want to be bombarded by ads every time I turn on my phone. Besides, given the nature of high streets these days, this is hardly likely to benefit small, local, independent businesses, is it? There aren't any left!

This is one app I won't be getting. Facebook is getting increasingly irritating, in the same manner as the guy at parties who constantly exhorts people who are already having a good time (until he appeared) to "Heyyyyy Partyyyyyy!"

From Rory: "Here's Facebook's view of your social networking future. You walk down the street brandishing your smartphone" and bam your smartphone gets snatched from right under your nose. Opportunists won't think twice when they see an owner pointing a flashy smartphone around.. One of the downsides of smartphone ownership

Social Networking is a real parasite that is becoming harder to remove from society. It is the bane of life for small businesses that have employees working with Facebook when they should be working for the business. That aside, any parent letting kids use Facebook should be imprisoned for Child Abuse - it is not a toy. It is one of the most dangerous products of the Internet that we have seen for decades and it needs to be stamped out now, or at least forced to police its users. You use Facebook, you will be paying for the consequences when your data gets passed out to anyone who wants it. Shops today ...