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Facebook Throws Privacy Advocates a Bone
sarysa writes "In response to a week-long assault by privacy advocates, and following a well publicized all-hands meeting, Facebook has introduced two new security features in response to privacy concerns. One feature allows users to whitelist devices associated with a Facebook account, and the other allows users who verify their identity to view previous logins. While both are useful features, they do nothing to address the recent privacy complaints."
Well we're talking about people who run scripts taken from Facebook pages promising them a $100 Walmart card, then when the card doesn't arrive, they make a group slagging Walmart for being dishonest, all the while not realizing it was a scam all along, Walmart had nothing to do with it, and their Facebook info is pwned. Last I saw before it was taken down, the anti-Walmart group had 78,000+ fans. The ENTIRE purpose of Facebook is to sell as much of your identity as they legally can. The more of your identity they can convince you to agree to share, the more money they make. Knowing this, I am still a Facebook user since I actually get most of my freelance work by following the actions of my peers and seeing when they're in the market for my services. For me it's definitely worth it to stay on my toes and maintain as much privacy as I can, but for most it's a trap with potentially dire consequences.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
I actually find this good news as I was worried there for a minute that Facebook was actually 'getting it' finally and was going to revamp its privacy policies in wake of all of the nasty criticism and high profile people leaving the site. Projects like Diaspora* http://joindiaspora.com/ can hopefully fill in the gaps that Facebook seems oblivious to. I have heard the criticisms that Diaspora* will be only for the technically adept - but I can see companies popping up to fill in the gaps if the market arises.
"The Network Effect" makes FB place incredibly useful and of course power users can wade through everything and get some decent privacy from the service - but I long for the day when that site is clearly in a myspace-esqe death spin as normal users start fleeing for better alternatives. It is the net; everything dies, so it goes. No juggernaut (AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, Napster, Myspace....) has been able to tame it. Facebook will be no different - and all the faster with their current disregard for their userbase.
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There is no guarantee of privacy with Facebook. Even if you kept your information hidden to everyone but your friends, your friends can slip up. If they use an application to fill out a survey about you, for example, that application instantly gets free access to your information. If they take a picture and tag you in it, any of their friends can see it.
Plus, as Zuck made it obvious on the 13th, he's got all of your info and doesn't give a damn who gets it.
Facebook changed the nature of friendship. It gave people who don't care about privacy the ability to share private information about their friends with complete strangers, without ever getting consent from the friend.
There is an option beyond deactivating: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account. That is what I've done, but I haven't confirmed whether or not they have erased all my data. And yes, that link was rather difficult to find. I was first tricked into deactivating my account when I attempted to delete it. In addition, you are completely right about exporting. It took me around an hour to download and save each individual photo I had.