Merry Christmas!
// December 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // Myself
Yes, it’s another one of those posts… 
Joking aside, have a good one and best wishes for 2010. You never know, I might post more frequently next year
Jordan
Archive for December, 2009
Facebook, privacy, and why they've got the wrong idea.
// December 10th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Myself, Technology
I’ve been a member on Facebook for a long while. I don’t use it addictively, but it’s been the private social networking place between me and my friends, where we can discuss things we wouldn’t be comfortable with doing if the rest of the world was watching. This is unlike Twitter, which has been my place to rant my thoughts to the rest of the world. It seems like this is about to change.
You’ve probably all been prompted by now to “review” your Facebook privacy settings in their latest update rolled out yesterday. In this dialog you’re nudged towards sharing select things with “Everyone”, but you can keep your current settings if you wish. Since I’d like to keep my private profile to stay how it was, I chose to stick to my existing settings and was on my way.
However, I’m the sort of person who (usually) knows what I’m doing with these sort of things. Already I’ve seen today people unaware they’ve accidentally published their entire profile, pictures and updates to the world, and in today’s all-encompassing digital age where nothing ever completely disappears from the internet, this is a very dangerous area. We’ve all heard of cases where people have posted insulting statuses about their boss, then realised they’re actually their friend. Now it doesn’t even take a friendship with the boss for him to see your incriminating statuses if you’re using Facebook’s “recommended” settings.
Even more infuriating is the now standard amounts of information which are shown on your profile to the public. I have no control over who sees my friends, my pages or even worse, the events I’m attending with the specific times and dates. Surely this stuff should be under the same controls as everything else?
It’s clear why Facebook are doing this – as already explained on various websites, they’ve struck a deal with Microsoft’s Bing search engine to provide public status updates to its searches. They are expected to do a similar deal with Google next year. To do this they’ve nudged their members to share all and covering it up by saying how much more streamlined it will be.
For me, Facebook was a private place I could chat with my friends, but if they can’t guarantee the privacy of my posts, events and profile, then I’ll think twice before posting that update or RSVPing to an event. I think they’ve got the complete wrong idea.
Jordan