Mark Zuckerberg has done it again. He has made some serious threats to your privacy, if you are a Facebook user. Zuckerberg does not believe in privacy, he has said so in those very words, so it is not too surprising that he further damaged your privacy to enhance his bottom line.
There are tons of articles about the new issues with privacy that came out of the f8 conference. This one on GigaOm is a good one (and thank you to Downtown Women’s Club for posting it on Facebook…the irony). Sadly, most Facebook users will never know about these changes, which directly affect them.
I have been a steady Facebook user for more than two years. I had rarely logged out and usually checked in several times a day to see what everyone is up to. I also recently launched a Facebook Fan Page, which is now called a like page. But today, I logged out. I will log out every single time I visit Facebook and furthermore, I will limit my visits to Facebook. I am just not comfortable with what they are doing over there. And more pernicious, is that other sites I visit, like CNN and Washington Post now have my information and friends. Unless I logout of Facebook, CNN knows who my friends are and what they are doing online. Talk about Big Brother!
I also hate the new “like” feature on Facebook. A Fan page is not a “like” page. They are inherently different. Like Kim Woodbridge from Anti Social Development said to me about the change: “I like peas, but I am not a fan of peas.”
I am not sure that Facebook cares what people think. It is feeling high because it has 400 million users worldwide, and that gives the company a lot of power, not to mention marketing might. For now, if you care about your privacy, protect yourself. Do not let Facebook use you for its gain. So logout, opt out, or do what you have to do.
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Are you a fan of the Facebook?
About Deborah Brody
Deborah Brody writes and edits anything related to marketing communications. Most blog posts are written under the influence of caffeine.
The facebook issue brings back feelings I used to have about politics. With career politicians, lobbying groups, and an ever-changing/updating environment it’s difficult to keep up and it’s even more difficult to be heard or make a change.
At some point you tune out (assuming you were tuned in).
With facebook, most ppl are tuned out with respect to their privacy until it’s breached. But let’s say they weren’t, what can they do besides delete their account. Then if they delete their account they alienate a whole world that could benefit them both socially and professionally. I always thought I was safe on FB until FB charged my CC to the tune of $1200 erroneously. I deleted my account but after awhile I was back like an addict. Granted w/ more reserve but nonetheless still back.
Blake,
You are so right. We’ve gotten to a point where we NEED Facebook–to stay connected socially and professionally. And Facebook knows this, which is how they can do what they do. But still, we need to be vigilant, and speak up.
Facebook has repeatedly shown that they don’t care what their users think. There are so many things that need to be fixed, – things that they users want and Facebook doesn’t even have support reps answering the questions in the forums. And the documentation they do have is so cryptic that it barely makes sense.
That being said – I do not care about my privacy as related to Facebook. I had a completely open profile before these changes so I could be found through search results – I’m not posting anything that has to be hidden. I also think people are fooling themselves about privacy – how much do we really have? Not much since the Patriot Act – we gave up on privacy for some false sense of security. Oh – yes, we like the idea of privacy but most don’t care if they have any or not.
And, I still don’t like the like button. 😉
Woops – was signed in with the wrong account – not sure how I did that. Must have been commenting about Mary Shelley or a WordPress.com recently. Sorry about that.