Now that they have critical mass, I guess Facebook feels they can do just about whatever they want with their users. This is smart. Users are too invested to go somewhere else due to a small reduction in privacy. There’re be some complaints, and Facebook will “compromise” so that they appear to be sensitive to their users, but we users have still ended up accepting less privacy. Patiently and systematically, they’ll chip it away. Like subjects in a Stanley Milgram experiment, the users have accepted things so far, so how can they not justify going just a little bit more? I say we get out now. We need the WordPress of social networking tools.

I was initially drawn to Facebook over MySpace BECAUSE it afforded much more privacy and more control over my social connections. If Facebook slowly waters down the privacy controls, will it eventually become the next MySpace–losing its effectiveness and credibility over time? what happened to SMART business decisions?? (or is that a contradiction in terms?)

Dear God. Did you read the blog post…..? No?
FYI:

* Control the visibility: Within your Privacy Settings under the Account menu, you have a section called “Friends, Tags and Connections.” Adjusting the drop-down menus beside each field let you determine who can see those parts of your profile. These visibility settings are a direct response to your requests to be able to hide more information on your profile. Specifically, the most requested feature a few weeks ago was to enable you to hide your friend list on your profile from your friends. As part of today’s changes, you can do that.

Keep in mind that Facebook Pages you connect to are public. You can control which friends are able to see connections listed on your profile, but you may still show up on Pages you’re connected to. If you don’t want to show up on those Pages, simply disconnect from them by clicking the “Unlike” link in the bottom left column of the Page. You always decide what connections to make.

Michael, I think that’s exactly right, FB clearly feels that they are now essential to people’s lives and that they will be willing to accept whatever unilateral decisions are made about privacy and marketing. It’s especially discouraging because I don’t see any real reason for them to take this path, they turned a profit last quarter and show no signs of losing advertising any time soon.

I have simply chosen to keep informed on all changes and on top of my privacy settings. At every given opportunity I choose to share information and family photos with only my “friends” on FB and not the public. I may be kidding myself, but for now that is good enough for me. -Tara

That is very bad news. Thank your for your article, because otherwise I wouldn´t have recognized the new privacy policy.

I thought my data was “save” when deciding in the profile settings that only my friends could see them, but I obviously need to make further arrangements to protect my privacy, according to the new plans.

Greetings, Stefan

I’m with you Michael, both as a hoper for a better tool with that somehow comes with a critical mass and a believer that facebook’s evil ways won’t change.

Here’s what I don’t get, and this ain’t no rhetorical question; I’m seriously asking: what’s in it for Facebook? Please do answer anyway you like, links or otherwise. I’m dying to wrap my noodle around this one.

I agree with Michael here, Facebook is absolutely massive. At the same time, I could really care less about it.

I have signed up for the odd event that somebody wants to contact me and can’t find my site (which is the first result on google anyway). But neither this network, nor any of the 2 others I am a member of actually have an impact on what I do or who I talk to. And neither does Twitter, for that matter.

Some people need fake relationships (and fake farm jobs) it appears, which is kinda sad, but then again it just replaces or combines with the time watching garbage in TV or surfing ebay, so I’m not worried about productivity any more than before. Facebook is a nonessential diversion.

Privacy really is up to any one of us to determine ourselves. Nobody forces us to volunteer the (valid)information or join these networks. If we do, we decide the terms of our participation (like putting “Darfboggling” for a hobby). It’s really just for funsies.

Sure, Facebook has critical mass now, however it would be naive to believe that users could ever be “too invested” to leave. If Zuckerburg continues to run this fine line between user privacy and investor pressure, it could be possible that a “critical mass” is created in favour of alternative networks. There are better alternatives than facebook. One promising upstart is: virb.com

I am also bit concerned on facebook day to day change in privacy rules, few days ago, i read on mashable that facebook added two more applications which are accessing user’s privacy data and how we can avoid that.

I think facebook send its users message if they want to share data with any new tie ups which facebook do and implement and not force automatic share on its users

I’m on Facebook under a different name. It makes it hard for others to find me, but at least I don’t have to worry about how Facebook will screw me over next.

Unfortunately it’s not something new… Facebook and privacy have never been very good friends. Just see how Facebook changed the privacy settings of ALL its users without any form of warning a couple of months ago.
They probably consider users as cows they’ve got to milk as much as possible while the website is popular. This is why I don’t really use their site.

Yeah. Facebook is acting really bad and I am not liking it. When I logged in on my account a while ago, it surprised me to know all the features are already knew. Aarggh! Everyone can see my information now and worst, the filter is not working anymooooreeee.

I agree with Michael. A big social media company cannot ignore the wishes of your users and their privacy.

Well said Mike, and yes, I agree with both of you.

However, unless hell freezes over there’s no chance that people are going to leave Facebook with no competition in sight. Go back to MySpace? Friendster? Hell no… not when there are the Facebook Ad Network and the ominous “Like” button for Fan pages.

Slowly but surely things will even themselves out. Nothing is ever built to last these days – remember that. The matter of the fact is that when shareholders are concerned it is a sinking ship – the question is how much profit can be extracted before it sinks.

Take Microsoft for example. Did exactly the same thing with Windows and PC’s by locking customers in during their monopoly – but now it has major competition from Google and Apple.

Microsoft won’t last until they do something amazing. The mobile market is about to be crushed by Google, of which Apple is currently king.

Facebook will also die – it’s just a question of when does it become painful enough that people leave? Clearly not at this moment.

Interesting idea, Mike, the “wordpress of social networking tools”. Sometimes I wonder why WordPress couldn’t just do that right now…