Tech Blog

[#1]

Facebook is the largest social network in the world with 400 million users, and roughly one-in-three Canadians have an account on the site. But it seems like there’s a growing disillusionment with Facebook, given how the social network seems to change privacy policies and controls like a revolving door. A homegrown movement has begun to help people cut themselves off from the site for good on May 31.

A couple of frustrated guys in Toronto started up QuitFacebookDay.com and a campaign to declare May 31 to be “Quit Facebook Day”. So far, over 6,000 people have joined the movement, planning to cut the cord with the social network once and for all. Their reasoning behind it is based on what they call “fair choices and best intentions” — two things they feel Facebook has all but abandoned. “We also don't think Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the future,” they say.

Not so long ago, there was a furor over the real possibility that Facebook would usurp all rights to whatever content was uploaded to the site. After that storm passed, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner held landmark hearings on the issues with Facebook, forcing the site to amend its privacy controls.

The latest uproar stems from the fact that Facebook provides certain third-party sites access to your name, friends list and interests in order to “personalize” your browsing experience whenever you visit those sites. By default, this is turned on, meaning that you have to turn it off yourself manually. Problem is, finding exactly how to do it is likely easier by looking it up in a search engine, rather than tracking it down on Facebook itself.

However you feel about the social network, the issues these guys bring up are legitimate concerns. They’re positing that privacy control will only get worse on Facebook moving into the future, so they’re pre-empting that by getting out now.

How about you? Where do you stand in the debate?

[#2]

Personally I very much disagree with the new privacy policy that Facebook has implemented and I have been going over the pros and cons of deleting my facebook account. Facebook has two different ways of "quitting" facebook. If you want you can deactivate your account and whenever you decide you want to come back everything you had is all there; your friends, yours photos you farmville farm - everything is how you left it. It is basically a glorified log off button and relies entirely on you not logging back into the site, but as a I said all of you things are still there.

If you actually go ahead and delete your account there is a, wait for it, 2 week - and I use the term for lack of a better one - Trial Quit. For two weeks if you do not log into Facebook your account will be permanently deleted. All photos and videos you uploaded are gone. Anything you have been tagged in still remains but the tag is removed.  Sounds not so hard right? Stay off of facebook.com and your set.

Well the problem is that part of the deactivation and deletion process is that you DO NOT LOG IN..At all. Those of us who use many different applications that are connected to your facebook account will auto log you in if you visit their site. I personally have my facebook account connected to www.twitter.com/jlt19 my hootsuite page which I use to update my twitter feed, www.digg.com www.gowalla.com/users/jlt my Bump applications on my iPhone, hell even my digg app is connected to it.

I even forgot that some of those were connected because I don't use them every day.

Those of you who, like me, want to show facebook that we want a real privacy control need to make sure that they understand. If not I encourage you to make sure nothing is connected to your facebook account and head on over and read about the Diaspora project which is basically a facebook that you control. It's in the process of being developed now but be patient it should kick all kinds of ass!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/dias pora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr

Justin

[#3]

I keep debating whether to ditch my Facebook account.  The problem is that some people I know just finally joined it and they want to use it to stay in touch.  But I now have to make the effort to update my account, and realistically, all the privacy changes have angered me just a bit as well.

I already deleted the Facebook app off my BlackBerry, which is step one.  Now to see if I can take advantage of the May 31st date... I might not go that far just yet, but I have a feeling it's coming soon.  I've been on Facebook since shortly after it opened up to most universities, but it's now grown to the point where it may be time to say sayanora.

[#4]

I am not going to get in a long winded debate, but I just want to ask you guys this. If all you do is go on facebook and write on walls or upload some pictures, can facebook really hurt you? I mean, as Canadians, we worry too much about what is going to happen rather than what is happening. Try going to China, or India, they will tell you: "It's all good" and nod their head in a jerking motion. Seriously guys, relax. ...Unless you are like that woman who got caught being infidel and has to divorce her husband...then facebook privacy is your biggest issue.

[#5]

The problem isn't what you post on your walls.  The problem is that many people post their birth dates and their hometowns and their current cities, as well as where they are currently working on Facebook.  All innocent and harmless, right?  Well, in the wrong hands, it isn't harmless and indeed can cause you a lot of hassle with identity theft later on.  And with some of Facebook's recent changes, I can easily access a lot of that info without people realizing I have access to it.

But it's ok, you've got your privacy settings so that only your friends can see your profile... but again, unless you manually go in and change your privacy settings after every privacy change on Facebook's end, you can't be guaranteed who has access to that information.  The biggest problem is that Facebook is now allowing profile access by companies and websites when you click on various links related to whether you like a product, or if you want to post a link to Facebook, etc.  It might not be a huge concern yet, but the problem is that this information can be dangerous in the hands of dangerous people.  It has nothing to do with governmental regulation of your rights and privacy, but rather keeping your information safe.

By the way, don't forget, you can go out to a party and have a little too much fun.  You might not post any pictures because you know you have coworkers or your boss as a friend on your Facebook account, but you don't know what your friends may do.  One of them may post an inappropriate picture, tag you in it, and now all of a sudden, your boss can see that without you ever having intended to see it.  You'd actually be surprised how often this can happen and people just don't think twice about it.

You can feel free to relax.  I just hope it doesn't come back to bite you.

[#6]

I don't have an issue with posting my current city, because that's publically available anyway.  Unless you ask the phone company not to publish your name in the phone book, it's there, complete with your address.

As for the pictures, I keep a close eye on what pictures get uploaded from my friends, and an even closer eye on what pictures I am tagged in.  My friends are generally pretty good at removing any pictures of me that I ask them to, and if they don't, I report the picture and ask the site administrators to remove it, which usually leads to that friend no longer being my friend because they get angry over something as silly as a photo.

But I do agree, the concern is there.  I don't use applications on Facebook.  I use it for what it was always intended to be used for - social networking.  I belong to some groups, have a bunch of friends that I stay in touch with, but beyond that, I don't do too much with FB.  I have my privacy settings cranked up as high as possible, and regularly check to see if FB has done something yet again to try and give people access to information I don't want them to have access to.  It's getting to a ridiculous point though, and I'm certainly on the fence, but like you Krypto, that's my only real means of communication for many friends/family members of mine.  It's not something I want to give up, but I certainly don't like my information being given to companies and people without me knowing it.

I long for the days when it was only open to university students.

JB

[#7]

"I long for the days when it was only open to university students. "

You and me alike!

[#8]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Glad to see that a little conversation has begun on here. Personally, I find Facebook to be useful for distributing information as a freelance journalist because I can post links to my stories. But that's pretty much a professional standpoint. On the personal side, I only post travel photo albums, but since I'm tagged all over the place by multiple friends, there are tons of shots of me on there, some of which I've asked to be removed.

Perhaps part of the problem is that you have little control over what someone else posts about you. You can complain, as Juice pointed out, but that also risks antagonizing a friend. Maybe it would be more palatable if you were able to really choose who can see what on your profile. But even that might not help. Consider the examples of friends or acquaintances who just blindly write on your wall, not thinking about what other eyeballs might see it.

I'm just putting it out there, but I do think there's a disconnect between those who use Facebook as a purely social and personal platform, and those who use it more as a networking and professional tool.

Just my two cents....