Facebook-Direct Phones — and Facebook Right On the SIM 113
An anonymous reader writes "Gemalto, a Dutch digital security company, has announced Facebook for SIM at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company's software development team has effectively shrunk Facebook down so that it fits onto a standard SIM card, enabling anyone with a GSM phone to enjoy the service even if without a data plan. In fact, the company is claiming the Facebook application is compatible with 100 percent of SIM-compliant mobile phones. As a result, it works on prepaid as well as on subscription-based mobile plans. In doing so, Gemalto is offering Facebook to millions of mobile phone users regardless of their handset type. Facebook for SIM doesn't require a data connection because it taps into a handset's SMS connectivity to allow the user to interact with the service; users can sign up for Facebook, log in directly, and even check out friend requests, status updates, wall posts, and messages, all via the dedicated SIM application." And if that's just a bit too Facebook-centric for you, a notch down are two phones from HTC just announced in Barcelona, the Salsa and the ChaCha, with dedicated Facebook buttons.
Re:The difference? (Score:4, Informative)
In the EU people don't pay to receive SMS. I also pay 0.09E to send them to every national carrier from a prepaid plan with no monthly fees.
I could get better deals if I agreed to recharge it periodically, but I'm not a heavy user so I wouldn't spend it all and it would just accumulate for nothing.
Re:Facebook on your phone (Score:4, Informative)
"...Next, your phone's contact list is automatically forwarded to facebook."
Seriously, dude.
As well as the contents of their schedulers, alarm settings, GPS coordinates...
And from that, one can determine actual sleep schedule (from the times the GPS location remains idle), the stores in which one shops at (GPS locations), the routes one takes to friends houses (GPS locations, frequency of visits)...fuck dude, the list goes on. Just think of all the possible connections Facebook can deduce from that data provided, in REAL TIME. What is wrong with these people (and by that I mean both the users and Facebook)?
This is people paying for virtual Verichips. Doesn't anyone see this besides me? Does anyone REALLY expect Facebook to apply any real morality to the usage of such data? It will be sold to anyone that can pay. That is what Facebook does, sells data.
And I thought the government having this sort of data on so many people was spine-chilling, but corporations?
Where is Howard Beale when you need him?