I just logged onto my Facebook and was greeted with a message about new and more simple privacy settings. As far as I can see, nothing has really changed except for the presence of one new screen aimed at visually displaying your privacy settings. In a chart, items such as status, photos, posts, family, relationship,'can comment on posts', phone numbers etc are listed showing whether you have given access to Everyone or Friends of Friends or Friends Only. The point seems to be to help you understand what you have your settings set to. To me, this doesn't really seem to solve the puzzle of whether Facebook itself (and it's advertisers, developers etc.) has access to too much of our information. But perhaps you might say that answer is a little obvious.
What's most interesting to me is what Facebook has listed under RECOMMENDED settings. They recommend sharing my status, photos, and posts, bio and favourite quotations, family and relationships and photos and videos I'm tagged in, religious and political views and birthday with Everyone and Friends of Friends. My question is who, that is not one of my close friends or family, is interested in any of this information? Until I can answer that question and not be dubious of who that might include, I think I'll opt to keep my settings to Friends Only.
Though I continue to consider Facebook a place for me to share information with friends, I have to remember that Facebook's mission is: "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected. This recent change in privacy settings, which I would hardly even call one, is continued evidence.
PS. For an excellent graphic depicting The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook, head on over the Matt Mackeon/IBM's Visual Communication Lab.
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This post was originally posted at www.williamjohnson.ca
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