Once again Facebook has outraged its user base with the result being another round of calls for worldwide boycotts. Listening to users is not a Facebook principle. Run a search on “Facebook boycotts” and you’ll find some going back to 2006.
Clearly, beta testing is not done before rolling out any new functionality or user interface changes. It’s absurd to call Facebook a “social networking” web site when in reality, it is anything but social or community oriented. It’s an advertising medium first and foremost. Its users are pawns.
Last month I wrote about how Facebook removes content without your permission from the “Info” you enter into your personal profile. Essentially, if you have something in your own profile they feel cannot be used to create a Community Page, they won’t permit you to keep your content on their web property. Without any warning, millions of Facebook users signed in to find their profiles were mucked up. Their content had been turned into links. Phrases were turned into links to Community Pages, whether it had any logic to it or not. I removed the phrase, “I’m very proud of her”, from my profile because I didn’t choose to be the owner of a Wiki called “I’m very proud of her”. Because Facebook manipulates our content to be used how they want it, I censored myself.
That we are forced to censor ourselves on a social web site should make everyone stop and think about what this means.
Bloggers and news sites have been writing about privacy issues . Facebook demonstrates a corporate arrogance and an utter refusal to consider the people who use Facebook. One wonders at a business model that is based on revenue generation and yet chases away the traffic at the same time.
Today, you don’t need to be accepted by anyone as a Facebook “friend” to be able to send them messages. This means anybody can be writing to anybody as long as they are Facebook members. Acceptance of “friends” doesn’t matter. Most of your profiles were made public, suddenly and without warning, forcing members to change their settings to limit what the world can read about them. Your “status” content is used god knows where. I see comments from people I know showing up on a CNN feed, as well as folks I don’t know. Why CNN needs Facebook comments is something I don’t yet understand.
Info Head Games
At first, I removed most of the information I had in my profile because I was miffed. Then, I decided to play head games with Facebook by finding ways to work around their programming that forces our words and phrases into links that are then turned into their Community/Wiki pages.
They have added a new process to entering content into your personal profile by suggesting the words they want you to use. So for example, if I wanted to put in “gardening” for my “Interests” it looks like this:
When you choose a word they want you to choose, you’ll know it because you get an avatar from the page it goes to. If you use words or phrases that are not Community Pages/Wikis (yet), you will see the funky triangle in the dull gray box.
When you click on the word “Gardening” next to their image, you are taken to their Community Page. Suddenly you’re about to be introduced to 724,275 (as of this writing) Facebook users you never knew. Try clicking on their profile picture and guess what? Facebook takes you directly to their personal profile page and information that USED TO BE PRIVATE.
I used their drop down suggestions as my clue for what I could put into my Info content that they couldn’t play with (yet). Sentences, for example, work. They are not pretty but you own the content, not Facebook.
For TV shows, my choices are all Community Pages. However, I discovered that if I strung them together and separated the words with commas, Facebook can’t use them.
May 31 is one of the days being called for a global boycott. News reports claim members, including well known people, have already left Facebook in reaction to this user abuse. The entire usability industry can use Facebook as an example of what not to do. So far, nothing seems to be making Facebook budge. All their meetings and feedback from them is not unlike the Three Stooges show we’re being subjected to with regards to the BP oil spill. There’s a severe lack of responsibility and care for human beings in both of these situations.
So, how will you respond to this madness? Have you had enough of Internet privacy abuses by sites like Google and Facebook?
Has social networking gone too far?
Kim – hi.
Yup. The Facebook “privacy thing” is a biggie – and has been rumbling on since just before Christmas, (I think it was), last year when they first started “messing” with privacy.
I had joined a couple of groups on Facebook complaining about Facebook privacy. But it seemed rather odd – like going to the doctor that was poisoning you complaining that he was poisoning you, or something?!
Anyway, this latest round of “Privacy Piracy”, (and you can use that title on your next blog post about this if you wish ;O)), has really annoyed me.
Links from my “interests” used to go to a generic search page where I could search people, groups, and pages to find – at my own leisure, and ONLY if I wanted to – like minded individuals or groups etc.
Now, as you show and have tested – all my links are going to all manner of weird Facebook Wiki pages, or generic groups etc. And then, if I don’t like it – and I don’t want to be on those pages – the “Interest” gets removed from my profile?!
Sadly, I actually like Facebook even for all the privacy carrying ons. I still find it a nice interface and easy to use to find friends.
And, I think this is what Facebook is relying upon – the fact that millions of people have become accustomed to Facebook that no matter what the owners of Facebook do, (change privacy laws etc), there is always going to be a certain percentage, (most people), who will stay – and the business models for revenue gathering from “Personal data sharing” by Facebook will be a success for Facebook.
Paul
Facebook is a business, and as a business they do what they have to to continue operating. They do what they have to to make as much money as possible. Facebook is a privately owned company; it is not a public venture, neither you nor the majority of Facebook users have any fiscal interest in it. I do not necessarily agree with all of their strategies, but it is their company and they can set their policies to suit their needs.
Instead of complaining about the privacy issues, why don’t you learn how to alter your privacy settings to those with which you feel comfortable? They have actually given the user a good deal of control over what is shown to the public and even what is shown to your Facebook friends. If you want to, you can make your entire profile including pictures, posts, interests &c invisible to everyone.
Here are some great websites about changing your privacy settings:
http://personalweb.about.com/od/makefriendsonfacebook/a/faceprivsetting.htm
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
@Raj, why do you assume I didn’t change my privacy settings?
They are a company that should be concerned with customer satisfaction so that their advertisers get exposure. FB is not user friendly. They made changes first, without warning or choice or announcement. This is poor business. FB removes user content and links it to pages without the users permission. This is not in any privacy control.
I assume because the most sensitive data (i.e. email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers &c) can be protected. So, why should it matter whether they link your likes or dislikes to other users. If you have your profile settings set to friends only, the people who do see that you happen to like “gardening” or whatnot will not be able to see anything else. Is it really that serious to you that all of Facebook can see that you like “gardening”? It really is such a shameful pastime; one that should be hidden at all costs!
Why should we have a choice in these matter? Again, we are not paying them anything for their services. To run they have to make money to pay for their servers, to pay their employees and to make a profit. When we as Facebook users start paying for Facebook’s services, then I believe we would have the right to create such a ruckus, but as of now, we are using their services for free and thereby we have no rights.
Where has common sense gone? Privacy is ultimately in the hands of the person submitting the information in the first place. It’s one thing to unknowingly have your information stolen but it’s quite another to submit information without asking yourself if you would mind the world viewing the info. The internet is no different than the offline world. If you don’t want something about you known, for goodness sake don’t post it on the internet or anywhere else!