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Intelligence
Why is everyone so upset about Facebook?

Intelligence

Why is everyone so upset about Facebook?

May 16, 2010By mStoner Staff

There’s been a lot of thoughtful stuff written and said over the last few weeks as Facebook’s privacy policy has continued to erode (including a post by Michael Stoner written on this blog with some great insights about the big-picture implications about Facebook’s new announcements). You can also get a great set of insights here, here and here. But I’m more interested in why any of us are shocked and/or surprised by what Facebook is doing.

First a bit of background: I’m a privacy advocate, a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and an optimist. So it’s not like I don’t care about the changes in FB’s policy, how personal information is handled online or have a gloomy outlook on everyday life. Just the opposite actually.

But as far as I understand them, these are the facts:

> Facebook is run by a guy with a history of unethical behavior
> We freely chose to join Facebook (a for-profit entity)
> We individually decided how much personal stuff to post on their servers
> Some of us decided to profile ourselves to a shocking degree of detail
> Some of what we posted we’d prefer not to share with the world
> Facebook realized/knew that co-opting this info is worth a TON of money
> Facebook slowly changed their policies to make it ok to exploit this info

What did we think was going to happen? We shared really personal information with a corporation who’d never really promised to take our privacy seriously. We watched as they incrementally shifted their stance on privacy (and on who actually owns the content we post). Basically, they made a really nifty platform that encouraged sharing and they decided to cash-in on that platform. Can we be collectively outraged at the fact that it’s happening? Yep. Should we honestly be surprised that it’s happening? Nope.

The admittedly flawed analogy that’s been bouncing around my head is to the cigarette industry:

Big tobacco behaved dishonorably and dishonestly in attempting to lead the public to believe that there were no health risks associated with smoking. But regardless of the health disinformation being circulated, smokers had to know on some level that there’s something inherently unhealthy about lighting an object on fire, sticking it in your mouth and sucking on it.

Facebook has behaved dishonorably and dishonestly in their communications about privacy and in the way they’ve repeatedly changed their policies. But on some level we all knew (or should have known) there were real risks associated with sharing our private information with a company that doesn’t seem to give a damn about privacy. 

What it comes down to for me is this:
There are known risks associated with smoking. Smoke or don’t.
There are known risks associated with Facebook: Stay or leave.

Ultimately, just like there isn’t a safe cigarette, there isn’t a safe Facebook. If you’re worried about risk you can smoke less and you can share less. Or you can quit.