While I can completely understand some of the criticism leveled at Facebook, I don't understand the hysteria that is going along with it.
Everyone seems to be screaming loudly at Facebook right now but lets put things in perspective.
You should never put anything on the internet that you don't want others to see. You shouldn't talk about things online that you dont want others to hear and you shouldnt complain when a free website you are using has bugs in it.
All the people that are complaining have a choice here.
Nobody is forcing them to take part in this. They are doing it voluntarily.
Stop using Facebook if it is becoming a problem for you.
>> Stop using Facebook if it is becoming a problem for you.
That's a good enough solution for people like us, but the problem is that the vast majority of people who use Facebook are completely unaware of the privacy implications, which can be potentially dangerous. Combine that with Facebook's recent culture of sneaking new terms past users, rapidly changing privacy practices, and to be honest - a poor record when it comes to security holes. This isn't just a discussion on whether or not I should boycott Facebook or just go elsewhere - this is a discussion on whether Facebook is harming people who have no idea it's happening.
edit: I totally agree about never putting stuff on the internet you don't want to be public - but facebook's initial setup, IMO, gave the user a "reasonable expectation of privacy" - which when established in a court case makes the service provider responsible for maintaining the user's privacy. Facebook is well aware that most user's haven't got a clue what is going on with their data.
Well, it's time the vast majority of people become aware of privacy implications, facebook and otherwise.
Most people don't care even when warned, ("I don't have anything to hide", "I share with whoever is interested" is just some of the responses I got trying to educate people), and deserve whatever it is that is going to happen to them.
Facebook has actually dealt with this brilliantly several times in the past -- they said, "here are the new terms of service. If at least 70% of facebook users vote against it, we won't do it". They even sent this out as a message to all users. That's a good way to call the bluff of the outragees -- almost no one cares, and facebook has the numbers to prove it, should they be sued for it.
Like in previous times, some people will get alarmed, 150 will delete their facebook accounts, and that's about it until the next gross violation. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Mark Zuckerberg and his cohorts pwn you. There is no way not to play, as the game was set up so that all your real-life friends sell you out (by telling all about you, tagging you in photos, etc). And they all do it willingly. Orwell would have been proud.
> You should never put anything on the internet that you don't want others to see. You shouldn't talk about things online that you dont want others to hear
I understand the practical aspect of this advice, but is this either realistic or fair? People will always have things they wish to communicate to only select subsets of other people--why should they give that up when they're online?
Permanent digital records of this kind of communication is a new thing, and while you're right that many people act naively about it despite warnings, it's also true that socially we haven't figured out how to handle any of this, and many of the complaints about Facebook are important expressions of how people think it /should/ be handled.
I agree that a lot of the conversation about Facebook and privacy is not useful. I'd like to see more specificity.
What I disagree with -- and correct me if I'm misunderstanding you -- is the idea that since absolute privacy is impossible, there's no point in discussing privacy. That's akin to saying that since absolute safety is impossible, there's no point in discussing safety issues.
I also disagree with the idea that nobody should complain / just don't use it if you don't like it. I would participate in a safety discussion related to a car I never bought. A privacy discussion related to a web site I don't use is fair game too.
In certain countries there is law protecting information about people held digitally. My understanding of this legislation is to allow the citizen to access information held on themselves and give them rights over that information.
How does this affect facebook? What about other European laws? It sounds like using data on a purpose collected on another premise, without agreement, could be illegal.
While I normally do not endorse identity theft, I think it's time people start to dig out everything about Mark Zuckerberg and start to spam him, steal his identity to do nasty things with, harras him and so on, he needs to feel what it means to have all your data out there because his opinion is a big slap in the face of all these victims of such criminal activity, he is starting to behave like an arrogant #%$%#$@.
Everyone seems to be screaming loudly at Facebook right now but lets put things in perspective.
You should never put anything on the internet that you don't want others to see. You shouldn't talk about things online that you dont want others to hear and you shouldnt complain when a free website you are using has bugs in it.
All the people that are complaining have a choice here. Nobody is forcing them to take part in this. They are doing it voluntarily.
Stop using Facebook if it is becoming a problem for you.