Facebook Further Reduces Your Control Over Personal Information

[villager]

Facebook Further Reduces Your Control Over Personal Information

Commentary by Kurt Opsahl

Once upon a time, Facebook could be used simply to share your interests and information with a select small community of your own choosing. As Facebook's privacy policy once promised, "No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings."

How times have changed.

Today, Facebook removed its users' ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information. Certain parts of users' profiles, "including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests" will now be transformed into "connections," meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don't want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them.

The example Facebook uses in its announcement is a page for "Cooking." Previously, you could list "cooking" as an activity you liked on your profile, but your name would not be added to any formal "Cooking" page. (Under the old system, you could become a "fan" of cooking if you wanted). But now, the new Cooking page will publicly display all of the millions of people who list cooking as an activity.

Cooking is not very controversial or privacy-sensitive, and thus makes for a good example from Facebook's perspective. Who would want to conceal their interest in cooking? Of course, the new program will also create public lists for controversial issues, such as an interest in abortion rights, gay marriage, marijuana, tea parties and so on.

But even for an innocuous interest like cooking, it’s not clear how this change is meant to benefit Facebook's users. An ordinary human is not going to look through the list of Facebook's millions of cooking fans. It's far too large. Only data miners and targeted advertisers have the time and inclination to delve that deeply.

There is one loophole — tell Facebook you're under 18. Under Facebook's policy for minors, your interests would only be visible for friends and family and verified networks. You would not be publicly listed on these new connection pages.

The new connections features benefit Facebook and its business partners, with little benefit to you.

<snip>



http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-further-reduces-control-over-personal-information

[Skittles]

1. LOL

I never saw this coming when I decided I wanted nothing to do with Facebook :rofl:

[Mojorabbit]

2. It is a shame

as I can keep up with all my neices and nephews and friends from long ago and recent in one place. Almost everyone in my family is on it. I really like it which actually amazes me.

[Skittles]

10. I manage to keep up with my nephews without Facebook

and they're not even in the same continent as me

[Mojorabbit]

21. I did too before facebook

but this way I have a more intimate sharing of their day to day. It is like a little snapshot of their lives and thoughts with each entry, plus photos, etc.
It is a much richer experience.
YMMV

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. It really is the only way to stay relevant with the younger generation.

[shellgame26]

3. They keep changing it

and I'm getting really sick of 'em. Ready to just delete my account altogether.

[City Lights]

14. Good luck with that. Facebook is like the Hotel California.

You can check-out, but you can never leave.

You can deactivate your account, but the account is not deleted. Facebook book keeps it, just in case you want to come back.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. Was Hotel California a metaphor for hell?

The other one that perturbed me was A horse with no name.

[JoeyT]

20. Metaphors for

heroin.
It does sort of accurately describe the Facebook users I know.
Some of them almost go into DTs if they're unable to update every hour or two.

[shellgame26]

33. Oh damn

Then that episode of South Park was right...:wtf:

[Quantess]

4. Facebook thinks I'm 95 years old

because I told them I was born in 1915. And my status is single. So I get a lot of popup ads for senior dating, silver foxes, etc.

[PJPhreak]

5. Firefox and the Adbloc+ addon will get rid of these pesky popups. nt

[TransitJohn]

9. Greasemonkey and Fluff Busting Purity will hide all the annoying shit.

I don't care about your mafia wars, farm, or quizzes. Now I don't see them. :D

[Mojorabbit]

22. You can block the ap easily enough

in the settings area of FB.

[Javaman]

27. Facebook thinks I'm a 75 year old rat. LOL

I went to Rodent U. and have a degree in extermination. (self loathing rat LOL)

[Journeyman]

6. Truly amazes me -- everyone was incensed when Total Information Awareness was floated. . .

yet a scant few years later, people willfully provide far more intrusive information about themselves with nary a whisper of offense.

[eShirl]

11. +1!!!!!!!!!!11one

[CoffeeCat]

35. So true...

People document their every move, using Facebook, including when they ate a grilled
cheese sandwich, attended a protest and fed their cat.

All of that info--as well as who your friends are and your interests---is like a dream
come true for... I don't even know who!

[Quantess]

7. Just leave out all that out of the info section.

Why state your interests to people who either already know your interests, or will soon find out when you post about it?
And maybe consider not being a fan of so many inane things like "watermelon" or "fritos" or "I stay up too late".

[Warren DeMontague]

8. That's outrageous!!!! I'm going to demand my MONEY back from those Facebook fuckers!

Oh. Wait.

[bobburgster]

12. Family finally convinced me to join Facebook.....

and it has been nothing but a big pain in the ass. It sure seems to be a lot of hype to me. I just cleaned out my profile per your suggestion. Thanks for the post.

[BlueIris]

13. I will never use Facebook for any reason. nt

[ehrnst]

15. Facebook makes it very difficult to change your age to under 18

They asked for a school issued email addy, name of high school, etc.

[pipi_k]

16. Sometimes it helps to be a smartass

On my Facebook page, under the "interests" heading, I have listed:

"Breathing, walking, stuff like that..."



Religious views: "Rude"



Activities: "Getting through the day without injuring myself". What's funny is that all these answers get linked to other sites, and for this one there are only three. One of them is:


The Old New Thing: How to open those plastic packages ...

The next day, I called the manufacturer's product ... but mine weren't heavy enough and couldn't cut through the ... How to open those plastic packages of electronics without injuring ...

See more results on bing.com



:7

[mod mom]

19. So if your security settings say "Friends only" this new change will override that?

[marshall]

38. I have to routinely go in and check the settings

They keep changing things, and you have to keep on top of it.

[kentuck]

23. And they sell your email address to everyone.

You should be very wary before you join.

[KG]

26. can you confirm that? I haven't gotten any spam.

anyway, with so many free email services, why would anybody use their 'personal' one? I have a yahoo account for anything i sign up for online, all my spam goes there to die without clogging up my work/personal one.

[kentuck]

32. I have gotten two or three in the last week...

and when I click on the open email address window, my facebook address came up? I only use it for Facebook and nothing else. I can close it at any time. But how did they get my email if not from facebook?

[GoCubsGo]

37. I have gotten spam in brand new, un-used accounts

Years ago, I opened a Yahoo email account and got spam within a few days. Never sent an email from it, hadn't given the address to anyone. It is possible Yahoo sold that address. But, spammers seem to have a way of finding you no matter how hard you try not to protect your address. Not trying to defend Facebook by any means. Just saying that they might not be the culprits here.

[pipi_k]

40. Same here...

Yahoo email and Gmail accounts. Both got spam within a week. Neither one had even been used for FaceBook.

[pipi_k]

39. Strange...

I use my regular email address and don't get any more spam than usual, and certainly nothing even remotely connected with my FaceBook account except for what I've authorized them to use, such as who's commented on my wall, etc.


:shrug:

[TalkingDog]

24. 2 accounts. google email.

public "legal" persona with no personal info, in case old friends, etc. want to find me.
nom de plume with anything I choose to share as long as location/address, etc is not included.


you'd be surprised how well it works.

[KG]

25. what's the problem? FB requires practically no real personal info to join..

not even your real name.

[Moochy]

28. I shared this on my FB Profile

Great job with the Social Media integration features on your website, EFF! :+

[AnArmyVeteran]

29. I deactivated my Facebook account because of it's HORRIBLE privacy settings.

I have never seen such a bad site anywhere on the internet. Facebook's privacy settings are ridiculous. You have absolutely no idea who can see any of your information. And their menus are ridiculous. They force you to go through several layers to change anything. I don't know who wrote the software for their site, but whoever it is, he's an idiot.

Because I have no idea how to property screen and protect myself online I decided to just deactivate the account. As others have noted, Facebook keeps all of your information even if you delete your account. Facebook also has been changing the way you alter your privacy settings too, so I'm never sure who is able to see what.

I got tired of hearing about how many times 'friends' took a dump or washed their clothes anyway. What a waste of time.

I just wonder how Facebook got so popular in the first place with its horrible user interface. It is user-hateful, not user friendly.

[Blue Owl]

30. Facebook can go fuck itself

Never liked it, never joined it, never will.

[brooklynite]

31. I would demand a refund of every payment you've made to them

(personally, they haven't charged me anything). Really, if you don't like the service, don't use it.

[marybourg]

34. "it’s not clear how this change is meant to benefit Facebook's users. "

It's NOT meant to benefit Facebook users. It's meant to benefit Facebook's owners in their quest for facebook future advertisers. Did you think facebook was a public interest organization?

[KharmaTrain]

36. Anything On A Website Is Public...

The stuff you tap on here and on virtually every message board, comments section or social site is wide open for anyone to see...bots troll the web gobbling up this stuff. Just do a google of your name and you'll see how little privacy you have out here...especially any personal information like addresses, phone numbers and email.

Thus I always operate on this thing like everyone and anyone is watching...to control what I put out here and where its put.