Oh Facebook, you just don’t get it do you? I would think that after you’ve been made to sit in the corner by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner once, you would have learned your lesson. Guess not:
The complaint addresses a tool implemented by the social-networking site in mid-December that allegedly makes users’ information more readily available than before. New default settings, which users were asked to review at the time, have actually taken a step backward, the complaint said. “The individual’s complaint mirrors some of the concerns that our office has heard and expressed to Facebook in recent months,” said Elizabeth Denham, the assistant privacy commissioner, in a statement. “Some Facebook users are disappointed by certain changes being made to the site — changes that were supposed to strengthen their privacy and the protection of their personal information.”
link: CBC News – Technology & Science – Privacy commission probing Facebook again
Couple the complaint with Zuckerberg’s stance on personal privacy—Zuckerberg’s Privacy Stance Ignores Being Chastised in Public by Canada — A View from the Isle—jeez you’d think the company was being run by rank amateurs.
So, Facebook, here’s the deal. People like to maintain some degree of privacy. Yes, I know lots of users in their teens and 20s don’t seem to mind their Facebook info and pics leaking out to the Internet, but they will. Like when they are trying to get a job and they learn that they didn’t get it because of their “Keg stand gallery” or “Spring Break 2010-Week of Debauchery” pictures. Then cold, hard reality is going to smack them in the face and they are going to want to make those things gone. Sorry, too late.
Facebook’s privacy stance has to have a reality check and a good helping of common sense. Even before Facebook, we did stupid things in college. I’m know there are lots of us who are really, really happy that our past antics aren’t available online. Back then, if Facebook had existed, I probably would have put up stuff that I’d now regret. That, folks, is the nature of youth.
I’m not saying Facebook needs to act in loco parentis for users, but jeez don’t put the gasoline, matches and firecrackers all together with a neat bow around them!
Let’s be pragmatic. Let’s go back to…everything is private until I say it’s public. Let’s put just a wee, tiny buffer between users and their own stupidity. Like the “are you really sure you want to delete this system file…” warnings we see.
Look Facebook, it’s either that or you’re going to be going to the principal’s office (i.e. the Canadian Privacy Commission office in Ottawa) every couple months. And really, do you want to be that kid in school?
Recent Comments