Facebook faces criticism on privacy change

[crayola]

From the BBC.... Facebook faces criticism on privacy change

Digital rights groups and bloggers have heaped criticism on Facebook's changed privacy policy.

Critics said the changes were unwelcome and "nudged" people towards sharing updates with the wider web and made them findable via search engines.

The changes were introduced on 9 December via a pop-up that asked users to update privacy settings.

Facebook said the changes help members manage updates they wanted to share, not trick them into revealing too much.

"Facebook is nudging the settings toward the 'disclose everything' position," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the US Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic). "That's not fair from the privacy perspective."

Epic said it was analysing the changes to see if they amounted to trickery.

Is anyone else annoyed at the changes Facebook have made?

I've just been through my profile and was pretty appalled by the things they'd made public, things I had explicitly restricted to be visible to friends only.

[ShelleyCowie]

I read that on my BT Yahoo homepage earlier. Wasnt pleased with the update anyway so i went to my privacy settings and changed everything so that onmy my friends can view whats on my profile. Simples!

[steeko]

Will double check my settings

[joxville]

I agree with the report. On logging into Faceache my privacy was on the default setting allowing everyone to see, I had to change the restriction to friends only. The default setting should be friends only, with the 'everyone' setting as the second option.

[changilass]

Mines still seems to be the way I set it up, with only friends being able to see things.

Let's just hope it stays that way.

[ShelleyCowie]

Mines still seems to be the way I set it up, with only friends being able to see things.

Let's just hope it stays that way.

You will get a pop up at some time unfortunately. My OH just got it tonight but i got it yesterday. It has the option "skip for now" but the next time it comes up you cant skip it.

[changilass]

Ahhh right Shelly, that was what I clicked away earlier, when I was in a hurry - ooops.

[Venture]

From the BBC.... Facebook faces criticism on privacy change

Is anyone else annoyed at the changes Facebook have made?

I've just been through my profile and was pretty appalled by the things they'd made public, things I had explicitly restricted to be visible to friends only.

Thanks for this crayola. I'm not on there very often and I too was shocked at how much information had been made available to all and sundry. Things like my address and email especially. I used the pop up to change everything back to my old settings. I'm sure there will be many people out there unaware just who is looking at their profile and what they are doing with the information.

[Geo]

You can choose to leave the old settings on the popup.

[Phill]

I have to say the internet is a powerful tool for those who know how to use it to full effect, and I do not profess to be that smart.

If you do not want personal details on the web then put your PC in the bin and cancel your broadband.

Yes, bookfizz has had you over, as have many other websites. They along with the other media and news sites have invested billions in the WWW for your benefit and now they want their pound of flesh.

I feel there will be a two tier web and we will pay for information and communication that was freely available BEFORE the internet. However, those with the finances and the power will have (if they haven't already) access to ALL the data they choose, including what we think is private.

We've had all this stuff for free and now, piece by piece, it is changing because we've come to rely on these social networking sites and they are part of our lives, unfortunately our lives for some reason hold a financial value and off it goes.

[Leanne]

I chose to leave the old settings (it was an easy click option) and I am still only sharing with friends and friends of friends... I don't understand why there is a problem? It makes it easier to find people who aren't in your network - I have great difficulties searching anyone out here as my home network is Manchester. I tend to get people to look me up as there's only one of me in the world

[steeko]

there's only one of me in the world

probably a good thing :-)

[WeeBurd]

I usually access Facebook through my phone, so was not aware of the changes until Friday (they were made on Wednesday I think) when I logged on via a laptop for a change.

Like Crayola, I had everything set to Friends Only, including my profile picture, but Facebook had changed them to Everyone. Now your profile picture, and your friends are all public info, and there's no way of hiding them from strangers. I'm not a happy bunny .