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Facebook Says Your Email Is @Facebook

Posted by timothy on from the hey-man-that's-not-cool dept.

beaverdownunder writes "Facebook has been silently changing users' default e-mail addresses to their @facebook.com address in a move that Facebook claims was 'to protect users' and to create 'consistency,' but has been blasted by many bloggers and news outlets as 'Facebook's Lame Attempt To Force Its E-Mail Service On You,' and even characterised the move as a Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) attack on users' private correspondence. From the article: 'Many articles characterized the change as a ham-fisted way for Facebook to push its email system, which it first announced in late 2010. At that time the company said its goal was to integrate conversations across multiple channels of communication — text messages, Facebook chat, email, etc. Facebook seemed surprised by the reaction. 'We basically defaulted to show your Facebook address as we rolled this out, just to keep it consistent for everyone,' said Meredith Chin, Facebook's manager of product communications. 'I'm seeing this whole meme around the idea that it's us pushing for people only to use facebook.com addresses,' Chin said. "That was not our intention. We want people to use whatever's easier for them.''"

12 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. There is not even a way to remove it! by brunes69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just went into my profile to try to remove / disable this POS and you are not even given the option to do so...

    I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.

    1. Re:There is not even a way to remove it! by slyrat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Just went into my profile to try to remove / disable this POS and you are not even given the option to do so...

      I am so close to closing my Facebook account it is not even funny anymore.

      Join the rest of us that left several months ago because of the increasing number of times that fb thought their views on privacy/settings/defaults was better than yours. At this point I only have a fb id so that I can be invited to events by others. Hopefully some sort of good event system will show up in one of the other social network sites.

    2. Re:There is not even a way to remove it! by ai4px · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Absolutely... I closed mine over a year ago when I got tired of going back into my privacy settings and ratcheting them back down. The final straw for me was the auto tagging in pictures. With facebook, you are not the customer, you are the product they market to their customers. This is why your privacy settings are undone all the time.

    3. Re:There is not even a way to remove it! by Dishevel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I make people who say that they are my friends call me, text me, send me an email. Heck. Sometimes they even stop by to say hello.
      Anyone in my circle of friends that insists that I need a Facebook account to be their friend is not a friend.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    4. Re:There is not even a way to remove it! by ImprovOmega · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Here's a hint: if you and your friend don't care enough about each other to be in contact in some way that doesn't require Facebook to facilitate it, then you don't really have a friendship. In the old days if you lost touch with someone you just let it go, nowadays you have people on your friends list that you haven't physically been in contact with for over a decade and yet they linger. It leads to a certain stagnation in relationships that used to be pruned by the requirement of actually putting effort into maintaining real and close friends.

      I think Facebook and similar sites have their place, but to be honest, I think we overuse and misuse them.

  2. Bullpoop by organgtool · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "That was not our intention. We want people to use whatever's easier for them.''

    Whatever's easier for them is to use the e-mail address that they set up as their default before Facebook screwed with their settings. Changing users' settings without their consent is a great way to lose users. I should know, I dumped my Hotmail account for that very reason.

  3. It's hard to hide not caring.... by Will+Steinhelm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny how people are always surprised by the reaction they get when they forget to consider others when making decisions

    1. Re:It's hard to hide not caring.... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Funny how people are always surprised by the reaction they get when they forget to consider others when making decisions

      Funny how people are always surprised by the actions others take, when you give others the rights to make your decisions for you.

  4. Deleted by mfh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Now that I've been off Facebook for a long time, whenever I see friends we actually have something to talk about, because I have no clue as to what's been going on with them. It's brilliant!

    Try it! :)

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  5. Re:Facebook lies about it's actions..., again by localman57 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess the amazing part is that they expect their lies to be believed.

    I don't think they expect you to believe it...Just tollerate it. Facebook basically assumes that if they piss you off in small enough increments, that only like 10% of people are actively considering quitting at any given time, they can be successful, because the 90% provide enough gravity to pull you back in. But there's a tipping point, and studies show that there really is a disproportionate amount of gravity around "cool kids", the most social people in your family, and other social people who act like "hubs". When these people move, they tend to pull others with them.

    The point of this is that FB is not a stock to have in your portfolio. Because they rely on being cool in order to continue to make money. But making more money than they currently make requires doing increasingly uncool things.

  6. Facebook is shocked at the response, REALLY? by realsilly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The entire purpose around user settings is to allow users to display what they want and to see what they want. So that means DON'T FUCK WITH MY SETTINGS. That means with every update don't check boxes that I didn't have checked before, don't force me to accept a change that gives me no way to say "No Thank You"

    And the fact that Facebook was not prepared for the reaction it received is a bold-faced lie. If they didn't expect this reaction, it would not have be implemented so quietly. Facebook knew there would be controversy, again, thus the hush-hush.

    On the other hand, Facebook is free to use, so it is in Facebook's interest to change the email address extension. If you were paying for your Facebook account do you really think there would be as many people on the site? Nope. So sadly, you're getting what your pay for, no fees, no freedom no privacy.

    If you don't like the TOS, leave Facebook.

    --
    Life takes interesting turns, but the most interest is when you're off the beaten path.
  7. Re:Facebook logic by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Facebook should be aware by now that users don't like Facebook (the system) forcing some changes onto them, or changing their preferences to something "that is good for you". (See privacy settings, Timeline)

    I'd say experience has taught them the exact opposite.

    A forced changes causes a vocal minority to be vocal. A fraction of a percent of the user base might close their accounts, but more likely they just talk about how they're really close to doing it. The noise dies down, the vast majority of their active users accept the changes and move on (if they're even aware of them). Facebook wins. A couple months later, rinse and repeat.