Facebook Masks Worse Privacy With New Interface 446
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."
Our privacy is not their concern (Score:3, Interesting)
I know it's a different company, but what did the CEO of Google say? 'If You Have Something You Don't Want Anyone To Know, Maybe You Shouldn't Be Doing It'. I see Facebook has the same attitude.
Re:Facebook is not about privacy. (Score:1, Interesting)
Here ya go, fixed that bolded quote:
Facebook does not care about its users. Get used to it.
You're right. And isn't it kinda sad that people just sit there and deal with it. I for one don't actually even sign into Facebook because they strong-arm you into doing things their way.
Whatever happened to giving people/users what they want out of a site. Has Facebook gotten so smug that they feel they can do whatever they want and people will just deal with it.
Screw it, I'm moving over to Zookeroo once it goes live in the next couple of weeks. I know the lead engineer on that project and not only do they value user privacy, but they are going way over the top to make sure that people can have the exact experience they want. There is far more Facebook could be doing beyond even basic privacy of information, but instead of making things better, they are stomping all over people's privacy and wants and laughing all the way.
I can't wait to see them fall on their ass with a confused look and bitch and whine about why people are unhappy with them.
Worse than that.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Worse than that, the pop-up menu option for more privacy was not listed as "keep private", it was listed as "old settings". If you hovered over the "old setting" button a menu did pop up that said "private" or something like that, but clearly the menu was designed to entice users to reveal more private information.
Re:DON'T LIKE iT? DOn'T USE IT !! (Score:3, Interesting)
HR loves you (Score:1, Interesting)
I work in the IT department of an HR & headhunting firm. Sites like facebook, netlog, etc have become real goldmines of information to separate the dumbasses from the decent candidates. You can tell a lot from a profile, pictures and who are in the friends list.
I myself extremely value my privacy and will never post anything on any network site other than professional network sites like LinkedIn (and even then, my BIO will be limited). It doesn't help that my father used to be in direct marketing ages ago. Even back then, direct marketing databases contained more combined and linked information about people than the friggin' government had... I can only imagine what it has become now.
Re:DON'T LIKE iT? DOn'T USE IT !! (Score:4, Interesting)
Huh? I was referring to fakenamegenerator.com [fakenamegenerator.com].
Re:DON'T LIKE iT? DOn'T USE IT !! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:DON'T LIKE iT? DOn'T USE IT !! (Score:5, Interesting)
If they have a decent transactional database, they'd be keeping a record of everything that happened. And I don't mean a database transaction log, but an actual row in some table that contains your previous data and when it was changed.
Information wants to be free. Isn't that a common meme around here? You can't take back what you've let out. If you want privacy, you have to be very selective about what you let out and to whom.
Boycot Facebook (Score:4, Interesting)
This only makes the "privacy help" message they give you when you want to unsuscribe (I'm sorry that's "disable" which doesn't do shit) more hypocrite.
I'd like to see people disabling their accounts en mass claiming privacy concerns, not going to happen I know. Some times I hate the world.
Fuck facebook, and more than anything, fuck facebook users and their habit to post pictures of non users.
Re:Where are they making their money? (Score:1, Interesting)
Why do I pay so damn much for my television, then?
Re:Our privacy is not their concern (Score:5, Interesting)
Correct.
Now the decision you need to make is based on the following information:
1. What are they asking me to give them, and
2. What are they offering me in return.
Facebook gathers the information you enter and sells it to advertisers for fun and profit. In return, they give you a virtual meetingplace chock full of tools for finding old friends and acquaintances, keeping in touch with same, organizing events, etc etc. What you are giving them in return for this service is:
- Your name and any other information you actually enter into Facebook. That includes interests, hobbies, etc for matching "the right ad" to you (enter "kayaking" as an interest and those "good luck charms for kayakers!" ads will appear almost instantly). This is "level one" of the data, and allows them to target ads to you.
- Your habits while on Facebook. Do you spend most of your time on your home page, your news feed, or an app? What kinds of things do you click the "like" button on a lot? What kinds of things do you reply to a lot?
- Things you and your friends do as a group, and what activities and discussions you have with various friends.
- They also allow third parties certain levels of access to your data based on applications your friends run.
Is it worth the price? For me, yes. I understand what I'm selling them, and I feel the service is worth the price. The same is not true of everyone.
Of course, one fallacy is that you always have to enter all of your real information into the site. It's not your Father Confessor. Enter the city closest to your town, not your actual town. Enter a slightly-but-not-quite birthday if you feel you must have one out there. Enter information about yourself that people who know you could use to recognize you (if you want to be sought out) but that would not give an anonymous stranger tools to use against you.
Re:privacy (Score:2, Interesting)