Facebook Users Aren't Outraged Over Privacy Issues, Says Exec

Computerworld:

Social networking giant Facebook has been taking it hard on the chin lately as critics contend that recent upgrades to the site and a bug that lets users view their friends' chat sessions raise a bevy of privacy issues.

However, in an interview with Computerworld yesterday, one Facebook executive insisted that users are happy with recent changes to the site despite the hornet's nest of controversy stirred up by online pundits and commentators. Ethan Beard, director of Facebook's developer network, noted that the millions of users that have joined Facebook's social network did so specifically to share information.

Read the whole story: Computerworld

Comments

[jenniferdarnley]

05:44 PM on 05/12/2010

If you thought FB was bad, check out Google Social Search (while you're logged into your main Gmail account): http://www.google.com/s2/search/social.

It shows all of your chat contacts to each other (as well as your Google profile connections, but at least you can opt out of that) through your "secondary connections". You can opt out of the rest, but you can't opt chat contacts out of social search unless you delete or block them. So, if you want to chat with someone, you give them access to every other person you chat with. Google seems to be aware of this, but does not care

(Google help page: Check out the help page.: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=165228 )

This is unacceptable. Let's tell the major tech companies that we care about our data and our privacy. Let's make them make it a priority to respect their users.

[Diogenis]

02:04 PM on 05/09/2010

So.....how is it "possible" to delete Facebook? ? I've tried, as I find FB a waste of time. My friends throughout the world know how to communicate with me...and we can do it with voice and cam....and not be foreced to type in a "silly little box"!

[Bulbul]

02:54 PM on 05/09/2010

Good luck !
I took your advice and did not open one.
Thanks....

[Diogenis]

02:01 PM on 05/09/2010

I am outraged, offended, and simply pissed off FB.

[janilsal]

11:51 AM on 05/09/2010

Do they have an "Unlike" button?

[janilsal]

11:50 AM on 05/09/2010

If you use Facebook to say "you have an itch in your third right toe", you are fine. But anything more than that may be TMI. ;)

[Diogenis]

02:09 PM on 05/09/2010

I like it. Your comment,that is, not FB

[thirdcloud]

10:22 PM on 05/08/2010

Facebook executive insisted that users are happy with recent changes. As the wind blows so does ^&*%$!

[Diogenis]

02:11 PM on 05/09/2010

Hmm, maybe we can develop ButtBook.

[GalinMcMahon]

11:03 AM on 05/08/2010

There are actually idiots out there who post things onto the WORLD WIDE web that they want to keep private?? Then they complain because companies don't protect them from their own idiocy???

[booker52]

06:43 PM on 05/07/2010

I disagree, I want the right to say who sees my stuff. I don't want to have to opt out, it should my choice not FB's.

[Andrew Douglass]

06:07 PM on 05/07/2010

I joined Facebook to share certain information with people I have said are my friends. I did NOT join Facebook so that every meatsack with an Internet connection would know my favorite music, books, movies, tv shows, the things I'm interested in, and what I look like. That's bordering on saying, "hey you! Steal my identity!"

[ThirdSection]

03:58 PM on 05/07/2010

Of course Facebook users aren't outraged over privacy issues. They're Facebook users!

[NightlyMath]

06:06 PM on 05/07/2010

Well... the users that were outraged stopped using Facebook.... I guess the guys logic works in a twisted sort of way

[Robert2Parker]

09:26 AM on 05/07/2010

Dude has his head buried deep in it. The constant changes are a constant source of negative comments on the site. Facebook is becoming like crabgrass.

[semoto]

09:52 AM on 05/07/2010

How would Facebook even know if people are disturbed by the changes? There's no feedback mechanism. You can't even get rid of your FB page -- even if you "delete" it. It's still there and if you even check to see if it's been deleted, it's reactivated.

The latest thing is a a new NON-privacy setting on FB called instant personalization which shares your private information with any participating site you visit and is automatically set to "allow." Most users don't even know this. There was no announcement.

But to make it even worse, even if you disallow instant personalization, if all your FB friends don't also disallow it, they're still sharing your information with the world.

If you're on FB, you might want to look at your privacy settings. You might also want to delete a lot of stuff in your profile.

[Diogenis]

02:17 PM on 05/09/2010

Yes, but I know how to get rid of crabgrass. it's Facebook I can not rid myself of.