The “Panic” With Facebook Privacy Concerns
Do you have a Facebook page? If so and you haven’t been hearing or reading about the privacy concerns, you need to check these links.
Facebook Ads
- New Facebook Ad System Raises Privacy Concerns
- Is Facebook Beacon a Privacy Nightmare?
- Facebook Ads Definitely Creepy, Possibly Illegal
There are dozens more links if you Google “Facebook Ads Privacy.” The number of stories about Facebook Ads shows two things: people are panicking like they did over the News Feed debacle and that this is a real privacy issue that could be illegal. If it’s the former and Facebook users feel that strongly, then they should respond the way they did when News Feeds came out. They organized into groups on Facebook and threatened a boycott to protest the service, which forced CEO Mark Zuckerberg to back down and add better privacy restrictions. If it’s a case of the latter, then I feel what I have always felt when it comes to issues of privacy: stop using the service or if the Terms of Service is questionable, don’t sign up for it in the first place. There’s been some concern about the data Facebook collects for some time now, yet some people have ignored the warning flags. If the recent rumors about Facebook employees meddling with user profiles and that they know what profiles you look at isn’t enough to worry Facebook users, then I don’t know what will. While some people may have deleted their profiles over privacy concerns, I don’t read or hear about a mass exodus of users leaving Facebook over privacy issues. Therefore, it makes me wonder if the only people who care about privacy concerns on Facebook are bloggers and some members of mainstream media.
As Valleywag likes to state, your privacy is merely an illusion when it comes to online services. When you sign up for an online service, all you can do is hope – because 99% of us don’t read the Terms of Service – that the company storing your data has policies on data retention, how that data is used, who can access the data, and just “trust” that employees won’t violate your privacy. The people controlling the online service, such as Facebook, could always see your data if they chose to do so. Employees snooping around in user information or profiles is also nothing new. We’re just hearing about it more and more. I suppose bloggers and other news sites are focusing so intensely on this issue because Facebook is arguably the most talked about Web 2.0 startup right now, and as sure as the blogosphere can build you up, they’d like to tear you down. However, I do think there are valid concerns when it comes to privacy, and data policies should definitely be addressed. I just think that people should be under the assumption that whenever you use an online service, your data is one step away from being accessed by a bored employee with nothing better to do than troll through your data and have fun with it. Or the other option lies with what Facebook appears to be doing with your data for Facebook Ads. You just have to be realistic that your data is not truly yours once you provide it to a second party. Having said that, be careful about the amount of information you provide on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, and others.
