Facebook unveils simpler privacy controls to spur sharing
Facebook simplified privacy settings on Wednesday in response to sustained criticism over previous changes that has reached a crescendo in recent weeks. The changes introduce a one-click control for content. Users can choose to share content on Facebook with friends, friends of friends, or everyone. The social network has …
Given (1) how many Homer-esque "do'h!" bugs in Facebook's privacy systems have been made public in the last few months and (2) how quickly they've gone from "we're gonna be revising the privacy controls" to "here you go, new privacy controls!", just how well have they actually tested these new settings? It all seems **very** rushed to me.
I don't have a Facebook account and never will so I don't particularly care. Their millions of users might, though!
If your bank made a series of "mistakes" that all benefited the bank but never you, would you still believe their alleged "incompetence" or would you small a very big rat? Ah, sorry, you best give them a call then.
I can accept a mistake. Maybe two. But 50? Sorry, even if you're very pretty or called Sarah Bee (those may not be mutually exclusive, but I've never seen as her) I won't buy that one, especially if the same CEO has previously made statements that made it perfectly clear what he thinks about other people's rights.
Facebook currently badgers the user into "sharing" their personal info with world+dog every time you sign in. Presumably this is "improved privacy" since you would then be choosing to give your info away, thus making it non-private by "choice" and therefore making it not come under any privacy settings in the first place. Well done chaps.
I don't want to be found; I want to find.
It's possible to set your account so that it doesn't appear in searches, although you'll still be findable via someone searching through a friend's friend list.
The theater is obscuring the selling of personal data to advertisers despite the controls - the control settings are irrelevant when you cant trust the supplier....
Oh puhleeze..
"Zuckerberg restated his previous admission that errors were made with previous privacy changes. He repeatedly said that he wanted to encourage people to share more information but said this wasn't because it suited Facebook's commercial interests."
Yeah, sure. New Labour's Gordon Brown only sold the UK gold reserves because it was in the nation's interest. FB has been caught with its pants down so often it is amazing the company is allowed to operate anywhere near a nation with working privacy laws. AFAIK, privacy violating options (known as "sharing") must default to safe - choosing to share must be an EXPLICIT decision, not an implicit one.
The only thing that drives Zuckerberg is to keep the cash coming in, because he's heading for a major lawsuit by those he stole the idea from, so to have the thing collapse beforehand is making him nervous.
I must applaud Ed Felten for his term, because it captures the prevailing attitude to user privacy perfectly. "Privacy theater" - brilliant. Hello Google - take note.
Logged in yesterday and was prompted to change my settings on which Apps/Groups can access my data, I unticked them all and continued, it took me to Account Settings page.
What struck me was that the average user may just think that was it, and continue on to their Farmville, but when I checked the Privacy Settings page, a lot of the options which I'd had as Friends Only, had changed to Everyone.
I still don't see much of difference with the Privacy settings from how it was, so I've no idea if I've been fully ugraded, so maybe this is a phased rollout of various changes designed to decrease your privacy yet again.
Apart from a pretty little box and the default settings option, there really is no change.
It's the same seperate privacy options, just looking slightly different.
Did you know, your group affiliation is open to everyone?
Try and find the setting for that... Nope, it's not under privacy, it's under "application setttings" - search for group, and edit the settings there.
Group lists, an 'application' ?
huh?
Total fail. PR exercise only.
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