Blogocentric Formulations

Facebook Privacy

I've been loosely following this whole Facebook uproar that's come up in the past couple of weeks. Apparently Facebook now makes profile information available to third party websites like Yelp and Pandora, so those sites can download your information and tell you which of your friends likes the restaurant you're thinking about eating at, or enjoys the song you're currently listening to. People seem to be getting really upset that their information is being put out there like that.

On the one hand, I can understand people's frustration. Facebook keeps changing their privacy settings, and the default is always to allow the changes to take effect rather than giving their users an option. I can sympathize with people who wish to exert more control over the information they put out there on the internet, and think it's pretty reprehensible for a company like Facebook to treat its 400 million users (who made it the success it is) like marketing tools to increase profits through strategic partnerships. Really, it's not much more than the electronic version of a business selling its Rolodex to marketing firms... it's always under the guise of providing more targeted advertisements for the consumer, but what it boils down to is one company selling personal information about clients, members and customers to another company for profit or competitive advantage.

In that respect, I'm no fan of Facebook.

On the other hand, though, Facebook is a company, and companies aren't really doing their job if they're not exploring every opportunity to grow, expand their business, and increase market share and profitability. That's the whole point of being in business, isn't it? I think what irritates me just as much as Facebook taking certain liberties with that information is Facebook users who post personal information on a social networking website and then become furious when that information is made available to other people. Facebook is a (free) service that people voluntarily sign up for... and it doesn't require you to provide any information that you're not comfortable providing. If you don't want people to know your birthday, don't put your birthday on your profile. If you don't want friends in your red state to know you voted for Barack Obama, don't become a "fan" of Barack Obama's Facebook page. Granted, I signed up for Facebook a long, long time ago so the memory's a little fuzzy, but if I recall, I wasn't required to provide any top secret personal information... and I certainly wasn't required to make it a part of my profile.

As much as I dislike Facebook for manipulating their privacy settings in a borderline unethical way, I really can't stand people who voluntarily provide information, and then get upset when that information is available to other people. If you don't want someone to know something, don't post it online... especially on a website that, by design, is intended to share information.

There's a general rule of netiquette ("net etiquette") that I follow. While I originally heard it in reference to status updates and message board posts, I think it applies to any information one provides online:

Don't share anything that you wouldn't want your parents, your boss, or your significant other to see.

To me, in addition to status updates, blog comments, and other opinions, that also goes for pictures, contact information, favorite groups or pages, and yes, even friends. While I sympathize with everyone who is outraged at Facebook's continued disregard for the privacy of its members, I also have to keep in mind that Facebook wasn't the one that put that information there in the first place.

If you don't want people knowing something about you, just don't put it on Facebook. Then, Facebook can do whatever it wants, and you can be safe and secure in the knowledge that even if the information is broadcast to the world at large, the world isn't going to see anything you didn't want them to see. And if Facebook has a history of pulling this crap with its privacy settings, why take the chance by leaving that information on your profile? Just get rid of it and be content with the knowledge that even if the settings do change again, the only information that will be shared is information you're comfortable sharing.