A great evil has been awakened in this land, and it is the Facebook “Like” button. It’s got the capability to do far worse harm than merely eating your shield. (If you don’t understand that reference, I weep for you.)

As if Facebook’s ubiquity wasn’t annoying enough, they’ve been trying to spread their reach even further across the Internet. Instead of Facebook being part of the Web, they want the Web to be part of Facebook. That’s arrogant and dangerous. I’m sure plenty of zombie Facebook users automatically see this as a good thing, because integrating everything into Facebook allows them to be even lazier…but these people are pissing their privacy away without even realizing it.

Put simply, the “Like” button is a way to integrate information on your site, blog, or whatever into Facebook’s “Open Graph” system. It’s designed to streamline content flowing between social networks and other sites. For example, clicking a “Like” button on a popular site helps Facebook build data on that site, and share it with its users.

Maybe I’m not alone in this, but I don’t want Facebook poking around my site. Obviously, it’s not like they had administrator access, or even user access…but until I get full technical details concerning specifically what that damned button is capable of, I’m not placing proprietary Facebook code on my site! Furthermore, this is new, untested technology. We don’t know how well privacy will be protected with the “Like” button, and we won’t until it’s been in use for quite some time. Sure, it’s possible that it’s completely safe, but without some real-world tests and data, I’m not sure it’s worth the risk.

I’ve made it quite clear in the past that I have no wish to join Facebook, and with the continuous privacy scandals the company has faced, my decision is reinforced as the correct one every single day. (Even some of my friends are starting to rethink their Facebook accounts.) Given the company’s track record when it comes to distributing users’ personal data without their consent, I think you can see where I’m coming from.

This is why I have not implemented a “Like” button on this blog yet, and I may never do so. I have serious concerns about its effects on the security of this site, and more importantly, the privacy of my readers. Until those concerns are solidly addressed, you’ll just have to use the “old-fashioned” bookmarking tools I already provide.