If you have been following my blog, you know that I have repeatedly reported on how evil FaceBook is.
You may also know that I had disabled my profile on FaceBook. Well if you know me on FaceBook you may of noticed that I did indeed re-enable my profile a couple months ago. Now I know this sounds a little bit hypocritical. Well the reason is I was coerced into developing a couple of FaceBook applications with a business partner.
These applications (which I will not name) did quite well and generated some decent income. They derived most of their income from data mining and selling the information gathered from our users. All through the process i did not feel right about doing this. I tried to convince myself that this was okay. My partner would say things like “They are going to call you a prick anyways, they might as well call you a rich prick.”.
For a while I somehow managed to settle my conscious on this. But always in the back of my mind I knew it was wrong. Hell I used to be one of those guys developing encryption software so people had the tools to protect their privacy. Now here I was invading the same privacy I once was trying to protect. In some ways I felt like I did indeed sell my soul.
Now don’t get me wrong I do not think making money is evil. But I do think it should be done in an honourable way. I felt like a spammer by using peoples personal information in a profitable way. Sure I didn’t take their information, I didn’t force them to reveal so much about themselves. Its not my fault that they don’t know any better. I mean I don’t even know them so why should I care?
Well I still do not know why I care and why it bothered me so much. However I am happy to annouce that as of 13:00 h today I have sold off all my interests in these FaceBook applications. I will no longer be developing FaceBook applications.
Maybe it was dumb to get out of a money making enterprise. Maybe I just don’t want success. In any case I feel much better about myself now.
I was tempted by the dark side, lured by the money. However I am a JEDI and will never turn to the dark side. 
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I love you for that statement
Even if you end up bread and water for a few weeks (which you won’t) you feel good now about your step and even if a little nagging voice tells you you are stupid, you’re not.
I’m glad you did it and I’m even happier that it feels good to you.
Well as the saying goes “Money isn’t everything.” . And you are right I won’t end up on bread and water.
It was a very interesting learning experience at the least.
Good on you. If more entrepreneurs acted like you the better the world would be.
Jennys last blog post..Quite frankly, I like it
It’s bad enough there are dishonest people taking advantage of other people. It’s especially bad if dishonest programmers start doing it too.
I’m really glad you stepped away from the dark side…
Vincents last blog post..Lines of programming experience
Personally I have a kid to feed and if it doesn’t break the law I will do it for the right amount of money. I always figure if I won’t take the job someone else will and I deserve the cash just as much as anyone else.
background checks blogs last blog post..Checking Your Own Background
It’s never too late to realize that you’re doing something for the wrong reasons! But it takes courage to admit that you were doing the wrong thing!
And like you said: “Money isn’t everything!”
Okay now I know that myspace can be evil, but I don’t blame Tom for that one.
I did not know that Facebook was Evil though. Thanks for the heads up
Don’t take this as a shameless plug, but I would love you to check out my site opcot.com, I am trying to keep it 100% evil free, let me know you thoughts.
I think you have made the right decision and I am sure that something better would be coming your way. Cheers!
Well other things have been happening, which is all good. I do miss the revenue my apps generated but I am sure my future releases will make up for it.