So, Facebook went and did it again… I think this time it may just stick (at least for a week or so, right?). Last week at some point the fine people at Facebook sent me an email. So I guess they sent the rest of the population an email too, but a girl can pretend that they totally know who I am, right? Anyway, it was talking about the privacy controls that they were rolling out. I typically ignore emails that say they are from official sounding people because they usually aren’t, and are just phishingfor your information. So I perused the email with great skepticism, and figured I’d figure it out as soon as it hit my Facebook page. 
It finally hit today and so I checked it out. It really is what they say for the most part. You can still drill down and set individual settings, like the one I explained about last week to hide your friends. Hiding your friends from even your friends now is under “Basic Directory Information” now though. The super duper simplified privacy settings now are much easier to understand to the everyday user, so that is a win for Facebook. It cracks me up though that they “recommend” EVERYONE see your status, photos and posts. Those are probably the things I most want the whole world not to see. My recommendations are to click the Friends Only button or customize exactly what you want the rest of the world to see from the “customize settings” link near the bottom.
The more Facebook tries to get this right, the further in the hole it seems like they are falling. Just knowing that they think everyone would want their status, posts and photos viewed by the whole world leads me to believe that they aren’t too concerned about privacy themselves, and are therefore having a hard time figuring out what the rest of the world wants with regards to privacy on the information they put on the web. Part of me says… If you don’t want other people to find it, then don’t put it on the internet. The other part of me also says, I really only want people that I actually know in person to have the knowledge that I’m going to have a Girls Night Party at my house this week (which I’m not, but am ALWAYS up for!)
What do you think of all of this Facebook privacy hullabaloo?
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They recommend everyone see your status because they want in on some of Twitters social search action. But a dominating culture has developed on Facebook that is far different from whats on Twitter. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the phrase “Facebook is for people you actually know” because the site puts some emphasis on relationships, in actuality it’s for who ever you want to see it but I digress, my point is many people on Facebook only want to share their content with people they know offline, where as with Twitter you have many bloggers, celebrities, marketers, fame seekers, businesses, people hoping to interact with celebrities, and people who don’t generally care about sharing short text messages with the public at large. I think if Facebook is not careful their ambitions could cost them their user base.
.-= wardell´s last blog ..My Take on MySpace =-.
Great insights Wardell! I completely agree that I use facebook for offline friends and twitter for online friends. I just share way more on Facebook then I would ever want the whole world knowing. I agree that if they want to be Twitter, they are going to fail.
All I know is this: If it weren’t for your posts about Facebook Privacy I would never be able to understand it all. So, thank you!
Thanks so much for guiding us. It’s wild and wooly on the internets. It’s great to have a friend in the business.
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