Personal Information and the Facebook Debate

[Beth_IA]

As a member of the Facebook community, I've been watching their terms and conditions change over time and the backlash of what my "friends" think of these new conditions posted in very public status updates.

I'm torn on what I think about personal information on the internet, but I thought I would share this article I found about a proposed day boycott of Facebook and get some opinions of other on how you feel about personal information on sites... what is okay to use? What should be considered private? etc.

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/05...(Top+Stories+2))

And I guess after reading the article and forming your own opinions, will you take part in the boycott of Facebook on June 6th?

[MarkJohn]

I agree wholeheartedly with this article. If you don't want people to see it, don't put it on the Interweb.
And of course, Facebook is providing a service, and they're doing providing that service to the general public by providing a powerful advertising platform to businesses. Seems like a pretty fair trade to me.

[Beth_IA]

I also agree with the article.

I think that younger generations (the high school & university kids now) will have a hard time agreeing with the article because social networking has always been around for them and there is a sense of privacy entitlement that they have... I know that I had to speak with my younger brother when he started applying to jobs after university about posting pictures on these kinds of sites and also the content that he posted. I just think it's so common place now that no one thinks about the ramifications.

And I should say, that having an HR background, we DID look on facebook and myspace for applicants who applied for positions. In fact, once we found out on facebook that an applicant had lied about obtaining a masters degree, and needless to say, she didn't get the job.

[Miss B]

I understand that Facebook is a business and as a member of its community, my personal information is free to be shared with other users. However, I don't think personal information should be sold to advertisers. That’s wrong! There's nothing I hate more than being antagonized by spammers.

[BenjaminMarketing]

Honestly, I am not really surprised by this in any way. They have quite a market, not only for advertisement...which is has not been fully implemented yet, and for social media, including news and misc. information. Their database is second to none for querying, and tabulation of data and multiple variables..

I had an idea that as they decided to grow, they would eventually do one of two things... Either charge the users a fee for service, or make money off your likeness and images..(information). They have been involved in target marketing since their inception, but on a subtle note.

Well... all I can say is...prepare for the emails, and set your spam filter to 'eradicate'.

[Erica]

I think that there is something underhanded about adding "privacy" settings and then having the default be "on" rather than "off". As we all know, Facebook is banking that you won't pay attention and therefore won't notice. Especially since it was something that they changed on the fly and affected all existing users.

That being said, if you don't want people to know about your personal life or data...don't put it out on the web. It's as simple as that.

[BeyondOriginal]

You could always go back to Friendster.

[TanyaEverest]

Facebook seems to be dangerous on several grounds. First, of course is what your talking about-the ads and sale of information. But deeper than that Facebook allows us to check out people and quickly judge them by their profiles-for job interviews, roommates, etc. A couple of my friends have actually changed their last names on Facebook so that people searching for them will hit a dead end, particularly when searching for jobs.

In my opinion the options are: 1. quit facebook 2. continue to use, but always remember that everything you say is now public knowledge 3. change your display name 4. completely lock your privacy settings.

[Chips]

In my opinion the options are: 1. quit facebook 2. continue to use, but always remember that everything you say is now public knowledge 3. change your display name 4. completely lock your privacy settings.

I took option 1 a few days ago and you know what? I don't miss it. I set it on "suspend" for phase one and now I feel comfortable with deleting it all together. I really never got much out of it except when I realized what a time suck hole it was.

[Renee]

There used to be a time when facebook allowed you to block people you're not friends with to even see your profile pic.. Now they don't allow you to do that..

I've always had my personal facebook profile set to private as much as possible so that only my friends can see anything, and only accepted friends with people I actually know and would be comfortable seeing my personal stuff..

I know that's no substitute because if someone really wanted to they could probably get in there and see stuff but I figure its better than nothing... I mainly only use facebook for sharing photos with my friends that are no longer living here or that i dont get to see as often due to babies/marriages etc, and for catching up with my family who arent here. And I dont post anything that i dont want people to see. I find that being "friends" with my mother in law solves that problem quite easily because I always think twice before posting anything there.

[Karim.ZamaMedia]

You know whats annoying about facebook. When they changed the whole privacy thing they put the privacy settings basically for everyone to see everything as default. You have to go into the settings to make it more private. Why didn't they just put everyone's settings onto private, then the user can adjust it if they want.

Also a guy I know searches for people on face book before he gets them to come into job interviews to find out a bit of information about them..... That really opened my eyes.

[LuckyLizzy]

I think that facebook is a great way to find out who a person really is before hiring them. If a person is lying about who they are then they probably cannot be trusted with other things. I like the fact that people are more transparent because of facebook. I dont have anything to hide and if you dont want people to know where you live or your number, then dont post it on the web. Just share things that you would show anyone

[Renee]

You know whats annoying about facebook. When they changed the whole privacy thing they put the privacy settings basically for everyone to see everything as default. You have to go into the settings to make it more private. Why didn't they just put everyone's settings onto private, then the user can adjust it if they want.

Also a guy I know searches for people on face book before he gets them to come into job interviews to find out a bit of information about them..... That really opened my eyes.

I agree... I think if you had the privacy set to not show before, they shouldn't automatically set it to "off"...

Lizzy - I think you're right that you shouldn't post stuff you wouldn't tell everyone, but at the same time I think that's why you can't really tell what a person is like on facebook because I'd say a lot of people only post what they want people to see...

My cousin for example has her age set to in her 60s or something (she is early 20s) that she is married to a woman and that her kids are tagged as a couple of her friends...

[Adamvv]

Honestly, there are ways to "hack" Facebook to circumvent the privacy settings.

I heard from a head hunter that they were able to see anyone's facebook page, no matter their level of security.

They too mentioned that they browse a potential applicant's facebook page to learn more about them. This is why it is not recommended to post pictures of yourself in... precarious situations (among other reasons)

[Beth_IA]

The backlash continues...

I found this article in the San Fransisco Chronicle this morning about a guy who is looking for 10,000 users to all quit facebook on the same day. So far he only has 100 people signed up (far cry from the 10,000 he wants)!

In the article they mention that facebook's biggest fault in the constant changes of terms and conditions is their lack of informing the users properly. I know I feel this is true, what about the rest of you? Do you think facebook does a good job providing information on changes to their users?

[Renee]

Honestly, there are ways to "hack" Facebook to circumvent the privacy settings.

I heard from a head hunter that they were able to see anyone's facebook page, no matter their level of security.

They too mentioned that they browse a potential applicant's facebook page to learn more about them. This is why it is not recommended to post pictures of yourself in... precarious situations (among other reasons)

Is there something in the Facebook T&Cs that allows this? If not I would say this is very illegal. I know that law enforcement officers etc are legally allowed to do that, but head hunters and recruitment agents... not sure about that one.