UPDATE/DISCLAIMER: I am only one individual Facebook user who noticed some really weird things from my Facebook account in the middle of the night. I have no idea what it means, if it is available to everyone, or if it is permanent. It seems alarming, so I wrote about my concerns, that is all this blog posting is. If I had a way to “test” some things I would, if I had the direct line to someone at Facebook who would answer my questions I would certainly ask. There is a link below to what Facebook is saying publicly on the Facebook Blog.
Yup. Call me crazy, but I am officially calling it. Today is the end of Facebook.
Okay, perhaps just for me. Today I am officially done with Facebook, or at least genuinely considering calling it quits.
I’ll tell you why, and maybe it will shed some light on why I also think it should be the end for any one else who cares about privacy, consent and ethics.
Here’s how it went down:
I couldn’t sleep again, so I was up late poking around on Facebook. Someone I know posted something that got me thinking. I went to see if there was a “page” for that thing. That thing happened to be the Harlem Renaissance, so I typed in ‘harlem renaissance’ to the Facebook search bar. Low and behold my friend’s status update was on that page. “Weird,” I thought, she’s not a member of this group. But then I realized that it wasn’t a group. Then out of curiosity I typed something about the Harlem Renaissance into my status update, you know, just to see. Sure enough I go back to that page and there is MY status update at the top!
Whoa.
No!
I choose to broadcast thoughts to my 556 friends all the time. Those thoughts include any number of words about any number of subjects at any given time. This we all understand to be the way of status updates and generally speaking, the way of facebook. Not any more. As of a few days ago, my status updates, yours too friend and not-friends alike, are blasted to potentially millions of people at once. Status updates now fill “Community Pages” as “Global Related Posts.”
Take for example if I decide to write, “ugh so tired of these damn homophobic racist Christian bigots giving me problems at work.” Or, I could write, “So happy to be a Christian, Jesus is my homeboy!” Clearly different perspectives, could just be a matter of different days, or perhaps a fundamental difference in relationship to the term, “Christian.” On my profile all 556 of my other homies would then see my comment, my perspective, my experience– THAT is fine by me. But now, the 168,531 people who have thumbs-uped the “Activity”/”Community” called “Christian” get my status update at the top of the Christian Community Page.
Further example: Let’s say I post an article about Spam, the meat product. Or the FBI, the government agency that… wait, nevermind, I’ll keep that to myself. If I write a word or a phase in MY status update and that particular word has a “Community” then my status update becomes part of THAT community. “Oriana Bolden is seriously craving a hunkin’ slab of steamy Spam goodness” is no longer just between me and my 556 virtual friends. That spam-tastic update is now on Facebook’s search page and potentially viewable by all of the millions of Spam lovers world-wide through the “Community” page, even if I don’t know a single one of the people there.
Automatically.
And, there’s no way for me to opt out.
Say what?
This is unacceptable. Looks to me like the only answer is to stop using Facebook altogether- this seems to be the biggest blow to my privacy from the Facebook coders yet.
See why I think this is the end of Facebook, even if just for me?
Facebook says, via their blog, “We hope Community Pages and your improved profile make it easier for you to learn more about your friends and to express yourself. We’re rolling both out gradually over the course of a few days, so you may not see them right away.
Profiles no longer are a static list of likes and interests. Now, they are a living map of all the connections that matter to you.”
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=382978412130
Anything that you’ve written about posted or even possibly commented on in the last few days is now a part of a “community.” You have no control in or over that “community.” Your words are on the wall and you can’t get them off. You can’t give them any more or any less context. If you say something personal just know that hundreds of thousands to millions of people whom you do not know will be able to see what you probably thought was “private,” or at least within your control.
The good folks at EFF had something to say about this two days ago- why has this not spread like wildfire? Either Facebook “fixes” this and promises never to do anything like this again, or users start shutting down their profiles en mass.
["EFF is the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world."]
EFF says,
“Your posts may show up on a Connection page even if you do not opt in to the Connection. If you use the name of a Connection in a post on your wall, it may show up on the Connection page, without you even knowing it. (For example, if you use the word “FBI”in a post).”
I tried this too, look up FBI on Facebook and you’ll see my status updates from early this morning as I was trying to figure this out.
Taking action against this one set of actions on the part of Facebook may not be a Freedom Fight, but I do believe we should have rights as social media users/consumers. I believe that Facebook is, and has been, on a fairly regular basis, violating those rights.
What can we do? WCWD?
11:40am update: The only ACTION I’ve been able to dig up it is to suggest that everyone comment on the facebook blog at:
* Someone just pointed out it is not only Status Update text that potentially becomes Global Related Posts, but also picture captions, comments, etc.
Update: Go to “Privacy Settings”then “Personal Information and Posts” then “Posts by Me Default setting for Status Updates, Links…” then select “Friends Only” then and only then might your status updates not end up as “Global.” It appears that this change took place for some people over the last 24 to 48 hours. Change it now unless you want your status updates to end up on pages that you have nothing to do with.
So the huge question is how can I protect my profile if Facebook can make changes at any moment and not ask me to opt in or out? The lesson I learned today was that I need to triple check things that are important to me. Perhaps I will check all my settings every few days or every time there’s grumblings about new pages or changes, etc.???
Either way, I spent quite a bit of time today worried about who could see what and what the ramifications of that might be. I’m done. Hopefully Facebook is done making these kinds of changes without consent.
