Facebook exposes users after changes to privacy policy
Thursday, 10 December 2009
, Posted by Ed Allen at 06:32
As of Wednesday, social networking supremo Facebook unveiled sweeping changes to its privacy options for users. The new privacy controls, particularly the recommended settings, have deployed the social network on the front line of the debate over data protection.
Having told users that the change "makes it easier for people to find and learn about you", Facebook has effectively opened up the bottomless pit of personal data at their disposal to everyone on the web.
The motivation for this move is primarily to increase traffic to the site from search engines - inspired by growing competition from Twitter (its pages are fully indexed and searchable) - thereby increasing ad revenue.
As of now, when a current users logs on to Facebook they will be greeted by a popup asking them to review and update their privacy settings. Whilst it is relatively easy for users to choose to keep their old settings, it is the new settings recommended by Facebook that have come under close scrutiny.
If a user adopts Facebook's recommendations then details of the user's gender, location, friends and family, as well as all posted content and status updates, could be found on search engines like Google or Bing.
This represents a fundamental shift in Facebook's social media function; instead of disseminating pictures and information amongst a closed social circle it now broadcasts that information to the world.
Many users who were initially drawn to the site by a desire to connect with friends and acquaintances from college, university, school or work - rather than a Twitter-esque desire to broadcast information to the world - may be dismayed by this news.
It is worth mentioning that under-18's using Facebook will be restricted to sharing info with friends, regardless of the options they select.
In a press statement the Electronic Front Foundation said: "These new 'privacy' changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. "
It added: "Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data."
The US-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) concurred with the EFF's early assessment before announcing that it would analyse the changes to see if they amounted to trickery.
Ultimately, the question all social networkers should (but probably won't) ask of themselves is: "How much personal information am I comfortable sharing with the world?"
Having told users that the change "makes it easier for people to find and learn about you", Facebook has effectively opened up the bottomless pit of personal data at their disposal to everyone on the web.
The motivation for this move is primarily to increase traffic to the site from search engines - inspired by growing competition from Twitter (its pages are fully indexed and searchable) - thereby increasing ad revenue.
As of now, when a current users logs on to Facebook they will be greeted by a popup asking them to review and update their privacy settings. Whilst it is relatively easy for users to choose to keep their old settings, it is the new settings recommended by Facebook that have come under close scrutiny.
If a user adopts Facebook's recommendations then details of the user's gender, location, friends and family, as well as all posted content and status updates, could be found on search engines like Google or Bing.
This represents a fundamental shift in Facebook's social media function; instead of disseminating pictures and information amongst a closed social circle it now broadcasts that information to the world.Many users who were initially drawn to the site by a desire to connect with friends and acquaintances from college, university, school or work - rather than a Twitter-esque desire to broadcast information to the world - may be dismayed by this news.
It is worth mentioning that under-18's using Facebook will be restricted to sharing info with friends, regardless of the options they select.
In a press statement the Electronic Front Foundation said: "These new 'privacy' changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. "
It added: "Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data."
The US-based Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) concurred with the EFF's early assessment before announcing that it would analyse the changes to see if they amounted to trickery.
Ultimately, the question all social networkers should (but probably won't) ask of themselves is: "How much personal information am I comfortable sharing with the world?"
Posts
but the "suggestion" clearly says EVERYONE. How is blatant labeling trickery? If people can't read, that's on them.
"How much personal information am I comfortable sharing with the world?"
None. I kept my old settings. However, it really bugs me that someone else that is my friend can say Everyone and they'll get my info anyways. At least that is what it sounds like.
Trickery i tell u!!
yea i heard about this an deleted my account today. The average user of facebook won't know the difference in the policy but it opens up a whole new medium for social engineers to use. I mean lets face it most people are stupid when it comes to computers and even more so when it comes to security on the internet.
I am not taking any chances, if there was a way to have my profile permanently deleted from the facebook servers i would do it.
Nice job kicking yourself in the ass on this on Facebook!
I almost found it funny when you attributed that quote to the "Electronic Front Foundation".
I kept all my old settings, I'm sure if Facebook continues down this road that everyone will abandon them like they did Myspace and find another place to hangout until that place looks shitty compared to some other new place. Keep it simple stupid owners of Facebook, you already got a shit load of people on your site, why you wanna drive them away?
Even if you kept all your old settings, you should manually go in and check everything. I "kept" my old settings but upon investigation discovered a lot of things had been changed anyway.
When I got the request to change my settings the default option was "Old Settings" for everything. I don't think it's particularly misleading.
theres no privacy in that. The cool thing about facebook was that everyone in your circle of friends was could communicate as if it were a bubble bc you didnt see non friends posts and stuff. I rarely go on Myspace anymore. Facebook screwed up big time.
I think the trickery is the part where facebook says it is doing this to improve your privacy and security.
If you want to rag on them, why not rag on them for lying? All of my privacy settings were preselected exactly as I want. The only way I would have had them set to open was if I had changed the choices.
Instead why don't you get on them for claiming to provide non-existent features, in the open letter they said "We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload."
I don't see this anywhere. Photo albums are still controlled on an album level. I can't find any settings for individual photos at all.
Facebook said that it will increase security for user. Really?
Well anyone using real information on the Internets are just plain stoopid.
They changed the share structure recently, putting that plus this together indicates that they're probably trying to temporarily drive revenue up to get a higher price in an IPO.
Facebook said that it will increase security for user. Really??
I call bullshit.
The image in the post makes it look like Facebook wants to make all the data "Everyone" by default, but that's not what came up for me or several other people I surveyed. Only a few of the items had "Everyone" checked.
I suspect the author of this post clicked on "Everyone" before taking the screen shot, to make it more scary. Totally bogus.
Truly enjoy reading your posts on your site. They are always interesting to read. Will keep your website in my bookmarks now. Thanks.
yea i heard about this an deleted my account today. The average user of facebook won't know the difference in the policy but it opens up a whole new medium for social engineers to use.I kept all my old settings, I'm sure if Facebook continues down this road that everyone will abandon them like they did Myspace
Nice article.The cool thing about facebook was that everyone in your circle of friends was could communicate as if it were a bubble bc you didnt see non friends posts and stuff.
The cool thing about facebook was that everyone in your circle of friends was could communicate as if it were a bubble bc you didnt see non friends posts and stuff.