Facebook: Is the age of privacy over?
Facebook can't seem to help getting itself into a heap of trouble over the the privacy of its 350 million users.
Rather than detail the growing litany of problems, let's just look at the changes made by the the world's largest social networking site last month.
In December, Facebook changed its privacy settings - to make it easier, it said, for users to control their profiles. The choice was whether to open information to friends, to friends of friends as well, or to everyone.
Facebook recommended that for status updates, photo albums and basic information, users should choose the third, and most open, setting, while contact information should be reserved just for friends.
In the US, ten privacy groups said these changes meant that privacy had been adversely affected. They believed that information that had previously been restricted was now open for all to see. A complaint was filed to the Federal Trades Commission.
Cut to this weekend.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stirred up the privacy issue at the Crunchies, an award show organised by the blog Techcrunch. His comments can be heard at about 2.45 in this interview.
Some have interpreted his comments as an indication that he thinks that privacy is over and that the depth of privacy you might have expected, say, five years ago is very different to that you should expect today.
Is it really true that privacy is no longer a "social norm", as Mr Zuckerberg seems to suggest?
There may not be a black-and-white answer to this because it is true that a lot of people give away a lot of information about themselves and their activities through Facebook and other services.
But - and there is always a but - it looks like a majority of people want to control this information in ways they understand. The problem with the Facebook changes is that most people don't seem to understand them, and that they seem to come along as regularly as the number 12 bus.
Certainly the issue of public and private information has been a real battleground for the debate between privacy groups trying to protect information and companies keen to monetise it.
What do you think?
Here is what Mr Zuckerberg had to say.
"When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was: 'Why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?'
"And then in the last five or six years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time."We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is, to reflect what the current social norms are.
"A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they've built. Doing a privacy change - doing a privacy change for 350 million users - is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do.
"But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner's mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now, and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it."
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~55~RS~)
Comments
I've worked in the online industry for many years and fully appreciate that privacy online can be limited. However I deleted my profile from facebook a couple of years ago for precisely the reasons you mention - their privacy settings are complicated and difficult to use.
At the time I had a profile on facebook and back then if you allowed your friends to see information, their friends (who you might not know) could also see all or a subset of this and you had no control over this.
Regarding the comment made by Zuckerberg, there's a big difference in sharing snippets about what you're doing via twitter, or a blog, versus the sort of personal information that facebook suggests you add - everything from your real name, to contact details and date of birth, etc. So the suggestion that just because people blog and tweet online it becomes the social norm to have no privacy doesn't really make sense!
Complain about this comment
I have worries over how it seems every time facebook changes settings, it defaults to the LEAST secure option. I'm fed up with adverts suggesting they know personal information about me, (yet still being completely irrelative) and discovering my friend's photos on other companies ads.
also, next time you add an application - read what you are actually agreeing to...
Complain about this comment
It might suit Mr Zuckerberg to assert that 'privacy is no longer a social norm' but the point needs to be made that a lot of people don't use his product. For some this is a deliberate choice precisly because they don't want to risk their personal details being exposed by whatever whim the owners of Facebook have.
Mr Zuckerberg is just one party with a particular interest. It is in his interest to erode net users 'privacy' in order to increase the traffic via his website and hence earn himself more money.
IMO there is to much presumption in the reporting of these matters that everybody is using these sites.
Complain about this comment
I've had 2 big wake up calls in the last week when it come to Facebook and privacy.
The first was seeing a friend suggestion Facebook made for me. I had assumed that when Facebook makes friend suggestions it's because you one or more mutual friends with the proposed link. However last week a guy popped up that I'd dated a while back. We have no mutual friends (according to Facebook) and I have no data or tags about him. I don't even have his phone number on my phone anymore so how Facebook made the link is beyond me but the fact that it has made a link is sobering.
The second was adding new iPhone app for Facebook and allowing it to sync accounts with my iPhone phonebook. Facebook made links to people on my phonebook that I'm not friends with on Facebook. Sometimes Facebook even made links to business associates where the only information in my phonebook was their name, work phone and work email address.
My question is how often is my information popping up on other peoples iPhones and would I be comfortable when that link. More importantly, how do I stop this?
Complain about this comment
Mark is crazy to think it's acceptable to distribute people's private information/date without their express permission. Clicking 'I-accept' to terms on a website is almost meaningless these days, and much much worse when terms are added or changed after the fact. Having agreed that 'terms can be changed at anytime' seems laughable.
Maybe it's the 90's generation that grew up with Big Brother and other reality TV shows that make it seem 'normal' to broadcast your life without a care?
Personally I like that my life is my own to share as I please and I resent companies exploiting it. I do have a facebook account, but am looking for alternative ways to keep in touch with friends and family. Soon as I find one, I'll be off. Facebook could disappear in the same speed with which it arrived, or basically evolve into a teenage twitter site and place to play games with each other.
Not sure that's the Zuckerman vision though!?
Complain about this comment
I think it should be a fundamental right that your privacy is assumed to be paramount and controlled by you. Online and Offline.
So, if someone runs a social networking site where you are offered any level of privacy control, then by default everything should be set to maximum, and that maximum is the equivalent of your profile or whatever being switched off. The only exception should be where a system is advertised as offering no privacy what-so-ever, of course.
So, it has to be an all or nothing - and no deliberately confusing middle ground.
Equally, off line your privacy should be guaranteed as a fundamental right. For instance, if I sign up for any service, that service, by default MUST keep all my personal details private unless I decide otherwise.
Now, actually with off-line style companies, this is more or less the case.
So why do the government sell all the private data on my car, not only without my permission, but without giving me the option or legal right to opt out?
If you own a private car park, or a second hand car dealership, you can buy that data and use it to look up the name and address of the owner of any car, including all the details of the vehicle (make, model, MOT, etc) based on the number plate. A revolution for car thieves looking to fulfil and order.
Feel safer now?
Complain about this comment
The thing about facebook and all the other social networking services online is that they're optional. If you don't like what they're doing with the privacy settings then delete your account.
The sites are predicated on you sharing as much as possible as that's how they become useful as a directory. Personally, every time Facebook changes its privacy settings then I quickly go through, re-adjust the settings and get on with it. It only happens every 6 months or so so it's not really a massive burden for the benefits I get out of it.
Complain about this comment
There was a post to all Facebook users advising of the change. If people chose to either not read it, or not act on it, then its their lookout. If people don't care about their privacy, then why should other people care on their behalf. It's a bit patronising to say "we're the privacy experts and we're going to get up in arms on your behalf". Facebook is for adults - and adults should be expected to look after themselves.
Complain about this comment
@Cameron
I've seen this as well on my FB, they suggested this people to be your friends. This happened because FB goes through your "friend's" email account e.g. Gmail or Yahoo Mail (with his consent) and mine all the contact list. Once FB found your email address, FB would happily suggest him to be your friend.
You're also doing the same thing with your iPhone app. FB's gonna go through your phonebook & suggest you as friend to them or them as a friend to you.
I've always been wary of this, never let FB access your phonebook or email account.
Complain about this comment
Privacy also extends to your intellectual property of course. In the Terms and Conditions, this appears: For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
I may be misinterpreting this, but that means to me that anything you post - photos, videos, music, poetry, lyrics, stories... Can be used or sold by Facebook as long as it is still somewhere on their system. The intention of this condition might just be "well if you post stuff up there, don't get upset if it ends up elsewhere on the web! Not our fault!" But what it implies is that Facebook can do what they like with it. Be careful what you share!
Complain about this comment
If you're worried about privacy don't go on Facebook in the first place!!!
To contact REAL friends or yr.relations pick up the phone or write a letter,don't stand on the roof and shout your business for the rest of the world to hear.
If you get caught out on FB it's your own damn fault not anyone else's.
Complain about this comment
I don't understand for the life of me why anyone would wish to post all of their personal info on facebook or any other such website. Even if you can delete all of your information it is still on the net FOREVER. Anything recorded digitally remains there for perpetuity. Just because you've "deleted" it and can't see it does not mean it's not there. Perhaps people who post on facebook don't understand the technology involved. And even if it was possible to completely delete information I still don't understand why anyone would wish to announce to themselves to the world. I enjoy being as private a person as possible; not banging on and on to everyone else about things which other folk wouldn't give two hoots about. And what about ID theft? Facebook must be a social engineers dream come true. And for anyone reading this who has a Facebook account and doesn't understand the term "social engineer" I would suggest you do some serious homework after which you will realise how vulnerable you are. If I were a technically savvy crook I would set Facebook as my homepage to search out new targets to bleed dry.
Complain about this comment
The best way to stay private is to have two online identities. You have one which is an "avatar", use a fake or modified name. Have an email account which is dedicated to this. Use this for Facebook, Twitter and other public sites. If the identity of this is compromised, simply close the email account and start another.
For real, serious online business such as banking, financial transactions etc, use another dedicated email with your real name. Don't share this email with anyone you don't know or trust.
Complain about this comment
I agree with comment by normal-thinker any company that offers a free service is going to have to milk the data it receives from its users.
My terms and conditions of any sign up are "I reserve the right to lie as much as I consider reasonable to protect my true identity & use an email address which I will dump the moment I receive one unwanted e-mail"
Widespread adoption of this tactic will retain individuals privacy & casual attitudes such as those expressed by Mr Zuckwit & others ie Google can continue to do as the please with my worthless data.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS