FaceBook's new privacy policy vote -- 900 million users cast only 350,000 votes

[KurtNYC]

It was not for lack of trying, Facebook said. The company said it translated the necessary documents into several languages and publicized the vote through the site. Facebook had said the vote would be binding had there been a 30 percent turnout at minimum. There was not, and the company announced that it would go ahead and adopt the proposed amendments to its site governance and data use policy. Of those who voted, a large majority said they preferred the old policies over the amendments.

The amendments, finalized in May, are designed to clarify how Facebook collects data from its users and leverages it to drive advertising. It includes what information is public on Facebook (name, gender, timeline photo), what data an application developer receives once you download its application (most get at least your name, e-mail and list of Facebook friends), and whether your information disappears from the company’s memory once you deactivate your account (it does not).

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/08/facebook-holds-a-vote-and-turnout-is-low/

Basically, FaceBook created and announced a new privacy policy then they asked their users to vote on whether they should adopt the new policy or keep the old one. The turnout was 0.04% of what FaceBook claims its user base is (900 mil). Among those who took the time to vote, the old policy was favored but FaceBook had set the bar at 30% (270 mil votes). So they ignore the voting and go with the new privacy policy (which really would more accurately be called a data sharing policy).

It look like either FaceBook just went through the motions of listening to user input while setting itself up to say in effect "well the users don't seem to mind enough to even participate in this vote so we are fine" or FaceBook tried hard to get participation but wound up showing its customers and competitors just how low participation REALLY is and how ineffective trying to talk to people through their impression/spam generation system is.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. People couldn't be sure that their votes would be private

As it turns out, all kinds of advertisers need to know percentage of those per IP address geographical zone who prefer more privacy, so privacy software and other analog and digital security features can be marketed to them. Also, there's a known correlation in marketing research between those who desire more online privacy and - believe it or not - those who exhibit a preference for frozen fish, so the Gordon's people really wanted a demographic snapshot of privacy concern.

[hobbit709]

2. Not all the info on my FB account is accurate and I want it that way.

The email address I have on file with them is only used for FB, so I can tell right away who is trying to spam me.
My way of fighting data mining is to swamp them with inaccurate info.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Nothing On The Internets Is Private...

and thinking it is is being very naive. Playing on FB or any website is like going out in public...what people see can and will make a lasting impression. Only put out things that you don't mind the entire world knowing about cause they will. If you want privacy, disconnect your modem.

[Skinner]

4. Facebook knew this would be the outcome.

A cynical, but effective, PR move.

[drm604]

5. Publicized it through the site?

This is the first I've heard of this so it couldn't have been all that well publicized.

[BigThrill]

6. how long

How long will facebook last, I wonder.

[Lawlbringer]

7. I got one advert to vote that went away after one day.

The conversion to the stupid timeline gave me notifications for 6 weeks before it happened.

[RedRocco]

8. first I heard of it, and I'm on FB daily

[Renew Deal]

9. How many of those 900 Million are active?

How many are individual accounts?
How many emails did they send out about it?
What did they do to publicize this vote?

And why do they assume that people on Facebook want to get involved in this meaningless stuff when they are actually there for other reasons?

[DotGone]

12. Facebook knew they had nowhere near the number of active users to make their users' vote binding

FB has nowhere near 900M users let alone the 270M needed to make the vote binding. Estimates are that there are only ~100-150M active users so this vote was just a show put on by Suckerberg and company.

[KurtNYC]

15. It is as if they want to get all the bad news out now that the stock is public

but it is going to get worse when they have to disclose how little they are making on ad rev and how it is declining. GM complained publicly about the result of their FB ads (and American car buyers are fairly easy to target for a company that has been doing it for 80 years).

[ellenfl]

10. this is the first i've heard of it. eom

[Brickbat]

11. I'm on FB almost constantly and saw nothing about this. I wonder if the notification of the vote

comes when you log in; I almost never log out.

[AndyA]

13. I always log out to minimize Facebook tracking me all over the Internet.

Never got any notification from Facebook about voting on their privacy policy. Not by E-mail, not when logging in or out, and not while logged in to Facebook.

If they wanted people to vote, they surely did a good job of hiding it. I asked someone else who's in Facebook several times a day, and they'd never heard about it either.

Who is Facebook kidding? If they really cared, it would have been easy enough to make it prominent on their site.

[BadgerKid]

14. Think you need to delete FB's cookie also. n/t

[KoKo]

16. If you use Firefox you can set it so that your "cookie" expires at "end of session."

At least that's the way it's supposed to work.

[BadgerKid]

20. that should work

but your terminology is vague. logging out of fb is distinct from shutting down Firefox. however the latter automatically achieves the former.

[NYC Liberal]

19. Whenever Facebook has some new "feature" they have no trouble pushing a

notification or message to the top of every page you visit on Facebook.com until you dismiss it.

You can't even get to the "Site Governance" page where the vote is/was without knowing the exact URL or searching for it. I only found it by using Google and getting the link from a Yahoo article.

[MadHound]

17. Well, for those on Facebook who don't like this, there is another way to vote

Close your Facebook account and walk away. I mean really now, is it worth it to have all this private data being sucked up by Facebook in order to make money? Do you really need to hear what your high school quarterback had for dinner?

There are other ways of keeping in touch with people, text, email, phone, or even *gasp* write a letter.

Facebook is nothing but a scam designed to invade your privacy and then sell it to the highest bidder.

[KurtNYC]

18. Absolutely, but now that the "vote" has been counted (and ignored) they keep your data forever

You can deactivate your account but they keep the data on you.