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Facebook Masks Worse Privacy With New Interface
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook launched new privacy settings this week. Cosmetically, this means that the settings are explained more clearly and are marginally easier to manage. Unfortunately, some of the most significant changes actually make preserving privacy harder for its users: profile elements that could previously be restricted to 'Only Friends' are now designated as irrevocably publicly available: 'Publicly available information includes your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, friend list, and Pages.' Where you could previously preserve the privacy of this information and remain publicly searchable only by name, Facebook now forces you to either give up this information (including your current city!) to anyone with a Facebook account, or to restrict your search visibility — which of course limits the usefulness of the site far beyond how not publicly sharing your profile picture would. That Facebook made this change while simultaneously rolling out major changes to the privacy settings interface seems disingenuous."
FB originally allowed privacy, they're now changing the rules. Do you honestly think 200+ million people would have joined if the new privacy policy was there from day one? Of course not. This is bordering on bait and switch.
The naive narcissists still fawning over getting to have their own web page about nothing but THEM are now sad that people will actually SEE that webpage. Awww, boo hoo... Guess what, folks - you're not paying customers, you're using a free service. You don't like it, don't use it.
Down with the career politician! SUPPORT TERM LIMITS
No, there is no difference. Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Your online friends identify you, actively and passively. Social networking privacy is an oxymoron.
It appears people still don't understand that Facebook is a company and a BUSINESS. Not a government institute, not a public service. Making money is their sole purpose. Anything else they do is just a means to make that money. People seem to think they can have some expectation of privacy from Facebook when their primary business model is advertising revenues. The way to make the advertising most effective is to base it on your information. Why should they care who you want to see it or what you want done with it? I'd say you're lucky they aren't selling your personal information en masse to advertisers, and they very well may be. If you put your information on Facebook, you should be aware that you are forfeiting all rights to it and you have no right to demand it be private. The people who complain about Facebook not having enough privacy are the same people who complain about Google knowing your search history. It's time to grow up now, this is how the world works.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." ~Friedrich Nietzsche
The subtlety anti-social behavior is lost on me; essentially, wanting to be social with some people but not with others. True it can hardly be called strange behavior, I'd call it cordial behavior or maybe even personable behavior; but calling it social behavior seems disingenious.