Say you purposely leave a letter on the table of a library saying that you've broken up, leaving it for anyone there to see. Then, a daylater, someone reads the note, then tells everyone in the library about it.
This is on your homepage. To continue with your analogy, it's like going to google.com and seeing a list posted below the search bar that includes people in your street, from your hometown, and at your job, with each list item being a DUI, divorce, job promotion, new child, death in the family, and contents of their last trip to the grocery store. All updated within seconds. You CANNOT go to google.com and turn this list off either, and your browser is set with google.com as its startup page and you cannot change that. Your Facebook home page and the "news feed" are the gateway you must go through in order to use the site at all.
No, actually, it'd be like YOU yourself putting your criminal record on google. But the only people who can search for the info are the people you gave permission to. Yet, the search takes time, and most uninterested people wouldn't bother.
Then google makes it so that anyone you gave permission to view your criminal record suddenly can see it without searching for it.
No, it doesn't. That's like saying that if you do something in public, you want everyone there to see it.
If you do something in public, you should neither deserve or expect privacy. That's the point here.Everyone on facebook put the info there THEMSELVES, for others to see. Like this forum. Should I be surprised if, a year later, my futre employer happens to see this post? Yes. SHould I feel violated? No. I made a choice to make it publicly available. This isn't a phonebook; you have a choice whether or not to put information on Facebook. When you change your status, or add pics of you getting drunk, you are saying you don't care which of your friends sees that info. If I didn't want random person to know something about my life, and there was even the smallest chance that said random person might stumble upon my site, I wouldn't post the info.
You just proved his point. The rest is irrelevant. There's publicly available info about you that you don't want publicly announced. Period.
Except, one big difference. This poster never willingly submitted info to be available to others. You putting that you're "in a relationship" on Fcaebook implies that you wanted everyone on your friend's list to be able to see it. And they always could. Except now it's easier. When Slashdot starts aggregating all your info (including real name, email, etc.) and putting it in your profile whether you want it there or not, maybe it will sink through your thick skull.
Real name and email address is info you don't want anyone to see. Hence, it's private. It's information I shared with the site, and the site alone. If I wanted people to be able to view it, I'd make it available to people- like those are facebook are doing.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an even better analogy.
Say you purposely leave a letter on the table of a library saying that you've broken up, leaving it for anyone there to see. Then, a daylater, someone reads the note, then tells everyone in the library about it.
Would this be "an invasion of privacy"?
This is on your homepage. To continue with your analogy, it's like going to google.com and seeing a list posted below the search bar that includes people in your street, from your hometown, and at your job, with each list item being a DUI, divorce, job promotion, new child, death in the family, and contents of their last trip to the grocery store. All updated within seconds. You CANNOT go to google.com and turn this list off either, and your browser is set with google.com as its startup page and you cannot change that. Your Facebook home page and the "news feed" are the gateway you must go through in order to use the site at all. No, actually, it'd be like YOU yourself putting your criminal record on google. But the only people who can search for the info are the people you gave permission to. Yet, the search takes time, and most uninterested people wouldn't bother. Then google makes it so that anyone you gave permission to view your criminal record suddenly can see it without searching for it.
If you do something in public, you should neither deserve or expect privacy. That's the point here.Everyone on facebook put the info there THEMSELVES, for others to see. Like this forum. Should I be surprised if, a year later, my futre employer happens to see this post? Yes. SHould I feel violated? No. I made a choice to make it publicly available. This isn't a phonebook; you have a choice whether or not to put information on Facebook. When you change your status, or add pics of you getting drunk, you are saying you don't care which of your friends sees that info. If I didn't want random person to know something about my life, and there was even the smallest chance that said random person might stumble upon my site, I wouldn't post the info.
You just proved his point. The rest is irrelevant. There's publicly available info about you that you don't want publicly announced. Period.
Except, one big difference. This poster never willingly submitted info to be available to others. You putting that you're "in a relationship" on Fcaebook implies that you wanted everyone on your friend's list to be able to see it. And they always could. Except now it's easier.
When Slashdot starts aggregating all your info (including real name, email, etc.) and putting it in your profile whether you want it there or not, maybe it will sink through your thick skull.
Real name and email address is info you don't want anyone to see. Hence, it's private. It's information I shared with the site, and the site alone. If I wanted people to be able to view it, I'd make it available to people- like those are facebook are doing.