back to article Facebook chief explains bear photo bareness

Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the derision that arose when previously private photos became public property after last week's privacy roll-back by the social networking site. Under Facebook's new (much criticised) privacy controls system, users are encouraged to accept the wider sharing of their photos …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What bugs me...

    ...is the fact that it is now apparently impossible to hide your profile picture from public view. I am tempted to remove it altogether, as that seems to be the only way. I don't have any beef with the rest of the privacy re-vamp (except with maybe the "recommended" settings), just let me hide my face from the world if I want to!

    1. PaulR79
      Big Brother

      Facebook - name hint

      This will come across wrong no matter how I put it but come on, the site is called FACEbook and you want to hide your face. I think you're looking at it wrong. People on the street can see your face too, do you hide that in public? Yes I know you can if you want to but that's taking it to extremes.

    2. TimeMaster T

      FB profile pic

      I just use an interesting animal for my profile pic. Though I am really thinking about just canceling my FB page, its not like I need it for anything useful.

  2. Number6

    The Simple Solution

    The only photos I have on my Facebook page are two pictures of cats. I think the second one ended up as friends-only by default, so I have something set correctly.

    If you don't want it public, don't post it, it's too easy for stuff to leak once in electronic format.

    Now, about the pictures from the Reg Christmas Party...

  3. Pirate Dave Silver badge
    Pirate

    "transition tool"?

    "[Zuckerberg] went through the transition tool like other users, "

    Um, isn't this a relatively simple dialog box with maybe a dozen radio buttons on it? Hardly worth calling a "transition tool". Altho, as I'm a newbie to facebook, maybe I'm just not hep to their jingo yet. Or maybe the facebook crowd tend to overstate things a bit. Perhaps next they'll call the "logout" link a "migration tool".

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    crack pipe

    did they edit that out of the picture with the teddy bear yet??? :D

  5. Mr Young
    Pint

    Har,har,hee,snigger

    Think I'll Opt Out looking at the photos though-especially the teddy bear one-WTF? I'm really quite convinced it'll hurt my poor eyes

  6. Studley
    FAIL

    Default = 'Share with everyone' = fail.gif

    The main problem with the 'transition tool' - a.k.a the screen which says "Update your privacy settings" - is that by default, there are NO privacy settings applied! See the screenshot below, which shows that all of the settings are defaulted to 'Share with everyone', as opposed to 'Old settings':

    http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/375/transition.png

    Which means that anyone who just clicks through it (or assumes that the default configuration will leave their privacy unchanged) suddenly finds they're sharing their teddy bears with the world. Zuckerberg, despite his protestations, is clearly a very public victim of this.

    For a company who have so fundamentally failed to get a grasp on privacy, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that they missed something as fundamental as defaulting to the user's old settings, rather than defaulting to revealing everything to the world.

  7. M Gale
    Pint

    I don't do facebonk..

    Or MySpack, or LiveDrama, or FriendsReUntidied, or any of the others. If I want a website, I'll make a website. I'll put what I want on it, how I want it.

    ..and you know, right now I'm feeling pretty pleased about that decision. Beer, because there isn't a bong icon.

    1. Andrew Metzger

      I'm with you.

      Years ago, I decided I'd never use any social site, up to and including blogs. Instead, I wrote my own site, which has exactly the privacy controls I like. I don't worry about pictures suddenly being visible to the world, because I just don't share them on the open 'net. It's that easy... let someone else manage your stuff, and you have to deal with their rules. Easy as that.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        "I decided I'd never use any social site..."

        Yes - if there's one thing I can't stand, it's web sites where people can choose random names with which to represent themselves and then communicate pointlessly with one another via terse comments. It's such an annoying fad - thank goodness we haven't been afflicted!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Fluff

    This episode seems false and deliberate - like they realize the raison d'etre of facebook is voyerism and that perhaps the greatest threat to Facebook's ongoing popularity - the factor that could potentially most inhibit their ongoing growth - is that users will become increasingly publicity shy and restrictive about the visibility of their content.

    Lets be honest - if you can't stalk your ex, perv over some future love or try to dig up some embarassing fluff about a colleague - what exactly is the point of Zuckerberg's site?

    1. Paw Bokenfohr
      Go

      to share photos..

      ..of family and friends and holidays with err.. family and friends.

      ..without the hassle of maintaining my own site (which I can do if I could be arsed).

      On a more general point, not replying to this specific post, it's not like the privacy settings are rocket science or anything.

      I'm sorry, but if someone's too stupid to realise what "share with everyone" means, especially when there are other options like, if I recall correctly, "leave setting unchanged", then it's not up to some provider of an ad-supported tool to nanny them and hold their hands through everything. Where's the personal responsibility?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    I had a facebook act once :)

    Remove your account before it's too late!!

    The longer you stay, the less likely you will be to be able to stop.

  10. Shadowslayer19
    Unhappy

    Why?

    The only pictures I have of me up are pictures taken by someone else, and put up by someone else. I'm not hiding, it's just the random people don't need to see what I look like at six in the morning.

    I also have four albums of random pictures that I find in the darkest depth of the internet (not THOSE pictures) and apparently people prefer those, because I'm not being self absorbed.

    Go figure.

  11. Steve Roper

    Just think about what you're doing

    I was pressured into getting an FB account because my family are on there and they wanted me involved as well. I admit it's been great for catching up with uncles, aunts and cousins overseas, but I've always been cautious about the privacy settings. Mine are maxed out as far as possible, so only friends can see my stuff, and if I don't know and trust someone IRL I don't friend them on Facebook.

    This transition page was mostly a recap of the privacy settings I already had - except that every single one was defaulted to "share with everyone". I warned all my family about this and told them to check what they were allowing very carefully. I simply set them all back to "friends only", which took all of 30 seconds.

    I can imagine a lot of people will just click it off though, which is pretty exploitative of Facebook. But it reinforces the point - ALWAYS read and check everything you agree to on the Internet, don't just click it off.

    1. Roger Heathcote 1

      Ahhh...

      ... I just did that, shit :/

  12. Winkypop Silver badge
    Stop

    When will FaceBook become mandatory?

    'Cause I for one would rather be arrested for non-compliance than get involved in that shite!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hiding face

    I seem to have managed to achieve this under the new privacy settings without trying. I can't explain what you need to do to hide it but at least it's possible...

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Publicity Stunt?

    They wanted users to take the privacy settings seriously as they were going to change things. They sent a notification out but users weren't taking much notice so they forced this transition screen on them.

    How else could they make sure users evaluate it? Get in the news about the main man having to fiddle with his privacy settings too.

    A bonus being, that this will also advertise FB itself in the process. Whilst some may sneer, it's documenting the fact that there are these privacy settings in place so it's seems pretty good publicity to me.

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