 Sharing, not caring
Tallulah Habib
Facebook is now offering simpler privacy controls but, remember, “Facebook is about sharing”.
It's a point that was made at the start of this whole fiasco: sorry we shared all your private stuff and made it too complicated for you to stop us, but, you know, Facebook really is all about sharing. Sharing is a good thing... it makes everyone connected, lets you know what those you care about or those who care about you are doing all the time. What more could you want?
But perhaps they realised after all the protests that people don't want everyone in the world knowing their business. Perhaps when someone becomes “single”, they don't want to be inundated with dating adds, even when not on Facebook (possible through Facebook Instant Personalisation). Perhaps they don't want the psycho friends of their friends to know their likes and dislikes?
“Oops,” said Facebook.
(Well, actually, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “I know we’ve made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve.”)
Their back-peddling can be seen in this week's simplified privacy settings.
Change will do you good
Since the site started, Facebook's privacy controls became more and more complex. It's nice to see that now we are returning to a place where one has a single page for the majority of the settings. Within this page you can choose your “sharing” options for the day-to-day stuff, allowing you to choose from default options or “customise”.
You can also adjust your “directory information” - the info anyone can see when they search for you on Facebook. Certain things have to be public, explains the site. They need to know your gender so they can refer to you as a “her” or a “him”, they need to display your profile picture so that real world friends can recognise you, and they need to display your network so you can find people within it and they can find you. The rest can be adjusted, even though it is public by default.
There is an “applications and websites” section of the page that lets you defend yourself from Instant Personalisation and the power of Google, if you're so inclined. Says the explanation: “Applications and websites you and your friends use already have access to your name, profile picture, gender, networks, friend list, user ID, and any other information you share with everyone.” Just in case you didn't know. You can view where your info is shared, however, and now block it.
Talking of blocks, there is also a “block” feature, where you can prevent specific people from seeing your information, or posting you invites, etc. Good for that annoying aunt Maude you friended because your mommy told you it would be impolite not to. You can also view a handy list of applications that you've already blocked, in case you ever start wondering why you're no longer getting MyHorroscopeOfAwesome updates.
All the additional settings that used to be all over the place are still there, so if you did figure out how to use them (for example controlling who can see you in pictures you're tagged in), then you can still use them as you did before.
Nice try, no cigar
For those web-savvy and privacy-conscious individuals, this is probably enough. However, the features and controls are still opt-out rather than opt-in, which means your info is shared unless you tell the site not to. The habit we all have of clicking “okay” until the boxes asking the annoying questions goes away? Not going to work here, unless you like the idea of sharing everything, of course.
Says advocacy group Privacy International: “Rather than being a bold step forward in the advancement of consumer rights, the latest changes merely correct some of the most unacceptable privacy settings on the site. Very little has changed in terms of the overall privacy challenge that Facebook and its users need to navigate.”
According to the group, only 20% of users on other social networking sites have altered their privacy settings and the fact that Facebook's “recommended” default is set to maximum disclosure means most people will continue sharing everything with everyone without even being aware of it.
Me? I'm just waiting for the day I log in to some random site and it says: "Hi @Tallulah Habib, this is Cliff, he also likes Friday, science-fiction and the internet. We've taken the courtesy of giving him your phone number."
...it could happen. |
