Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Look out! What's going on with the folks who give us Facebook?

Facebook reverses course on privacy policy

Now that Facebook has established a network of millions and millions of users, they are looking for ways to turn it into a greasy buck.

People Against the new Terms of Service, a Facebook group created to oppose the changes, counted more than 88,000 users on Wednesday.

Facebook would like very much to sell your personal information, pictures, writing, whatever...and if you pack it in, they would like to sell the information they already have, thank you very much. They've caved on this, at least for now, reverting to their old terms of use. If this worries you, perhaps it is a good time to clear out.

I've never had a Facebook account. I have an idea what goes on there, but I'm happy enough with this little guano island in the sun.

To those of you who post stuff on Facebook, are you worried? Are you going to get out?

7 comments:

A said...

I've thoroughly enjoyed Facebook for over a year now, first connecting with high school and college friends and teachers and more recently with family, not just the younger generation but even Mom's cousins, who are in their sixties! Today I've been following my 86-year-old great aunt's hip replacement in Omaha.

Each member has a "wall" they can post news and photos on, and only members who are "friends" can view each other's walls. It's much safer and users have more control than on MySpace. I had to cancel my MySpace account (which also retains users' information and images indefinitely!) due to scary stalkers who lived too close for comfort.

That said, the language change was indeed weird and scary. I've been watching the goings-on and today got a message that the previous language has been reinstated while Facebook's legal team goes over the issue.

We'll see. It'll be too bad if commercialism ruins another great online thing.

Anonymous said...

I hate Facebook. I only stay on it because some friends of mine only do online social networking stuff there.

These days I have my Twitter updates forwarded to FB so I don't actually have to go there unless someone contacts me. So,there's nothing there I'm worried about being stolen.

Some people have their blog posts forwarded there, which I think is a big mistake. They should just post a link.

Candy Minx said...

Facebook is just a preppy blog-lite...but it is useful for finding people you might know online and had lost touch with. It's basically email with an open page. It's not good, it' s not evil. It's just a messaging system.

I did get a couple of messages from friends saying they were dropping off because of the idea of stuff being made available...but I don't have anything secret or personal on the internet or on Facebook...and I can't understand why anyone WOULD have "private" info on the internet. (I guess some people have put their birthday, or city on their Facebook page)

For the life of me, I can't imagine what Facebook operators would be "selling" it's just people photos and messages. Who would care about that stuff except friends and family?

S.M. Elliott said...

I'm not terribly concerned. I don't post anything online that I would want to remain private or exclusively mine, 'cause it's unrealistic to expect it will stay that way if shared with millions of people. Facebook is sometimes portrayed as some kinda cryptofascist Big Brother tool of the Illuminati, but to me it's just a social networking tool like any other. You have to be careful with everything online, even email accounts. Facebook is no different; if you don't want the whole world to see it and use it, don't put it online.

mister anchovy said...

no illuminati? no skulls and bones? no mk ultra? You mean it isn't run by the guys who killed the Kennedy's?

Just a social networking site? How boring.

Anonymous said...

And just imagine us all there a few years from now...

Pensionbook

sp said...

I don't visit Facebook that often, but I do like checking in every now and then to see what everyone is up to.
I did pull my page at one point and then re-joined. I'll probably stay because there are some people that I only see via my facebook page. My cat, Prima, will also keep her catbook page. She can keep in touch with her cousins that way.

It could be run by the guys who killed the Kennedys. I haven't seen anything to suggest otherwise.