Facebook's New Privacy Controls: Are They Enough or Still a Problem?

The ongoing Facebook privacy wars have just recently undergone another chapter revision; the Facebook new privacy control changes are affecting all 400 million plus users again, including myself, and no one has been happy about the way they have changed until this point. However, when Mark Zuckerberg wrote an entry into his Facebook page on May 26, 2010 about the Privacy Controls, their evolving nature and what he had planned to do until now, the tides turned. Let us look at the newest changes, how they will affect all of the Facebook users and what is possible to come from this.

The Recent Announcement

In his post, Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged the constant negative feedback they (Facebook) have been receiving from users in response to the change in the default privacy settings and the fact that there are not many ways to make anything private. The constant changing and devolving privacy controls and the fact that indeed, these controls were not simple to use was acknowledged as well. The simple fact of the matter was they are way too complicated and too many of them changing all at once. The biggest change most recently made before this post included the "opt in or else scheme", which forced users to opt into the instant personalization, otherwise no one, not even the user could see the information-or at least when I opted out, and my information disappeared.

What's Changing Now ?

According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the most recent changes in response to the negative feedback and alleged civil suits against the social networking website apparently include taking approximately 50 separate privacy controls (yes there really were that many!) and merging them into 15. In addition, he claims that Facebookers everywhere will also have the ability to turn off applications and control basic info with one control as well.

• The main change that affects everyone is also the recent change that sparked all the debate; the connections privacy model, which was the setting that forced users to allow everyone see everything. This is being phased out and will no longer be offered. While the information was once made public by force, the user now has control over who can see this information again.

• Where all basic and personal information was forced to be public, users can now control certain personal and private information again; Facebook has "reduced" the amount of personal information that is "required" to be public.

• One simple control to turn off all applications! For those of us who do not want to receive a sexy teddy bear or take an (un) fun quiz thousands of times a day, we no longer have to deal with the invitations-and the apps cannot share out information.

Other changes include another of the most anger grabbing recent change that was negatively criticized in the recent months, Instant Personalization, was another change forced on users which allows other partner sites to see all information, whether it wad public or private so long as you were signed in to Facebook. Now, the recent May 26 implementation of new changes claim users can turn off the instant personalization completely and easily.

Is This Enough Change?

This recent change of Facebook's new privacy controls and other privacy settings are certainly a step in the right direction. However, is it enough for most people? Critics still say no, as do I. I remember the days when I had the make everything public and if I did not know someone I could not even send an invitation to befriend them. While those days might have been quite annoying for someone trying to find people they legitimately know and are friends with, they were not as annoying as the lack of control users have now-even with these changes.

Since the beginning, Facebook's privacy controls have de-evolved and seem to continue on that path, despite the recent "attempts" to re-privatize information and hand privacy controls back to the user and still, not enough people are happy about it and I do not blame them. For example, the government has been outraged by the recent changes, prompting the FCC to step in and look at what is going on, not to mention countless Consumer Advocate groups as well.

Reality Check

However, the biggest thing everyone should remember when deciding if they are angry about the Facebook privacy control issue and whether or not they will do anything about it is that this is what you signed up for, plain and simple. Yes, I mean that; I am furious that everyone can now see things that I may not want them to, but I, unlike most people, read the Terms of Service while signing up oh-so many years ago.

Does anyone have any idea what the terms stated? Well, more or less, back around 2007, they said that Facebook has the right to change any part of the terms as they wish and this included the privacy policy, anything on the website, anything you submit or use they have the power to reproduce, rebroadcast, change edit save, whatever-everything- without notifying anyone, period. However, these have since changed, but they still have the right to change anything they wish, whenever they want and all they have to do is post something on Facebook's Site Governance page. Honestly, even though they did notify us of Facebook's new privacy controls, they really did not have to, but we complained anyway.

In my opinion, all Mr. Zuckerberg did was exercise his right-which you as a user agreed to when you signed up-to change the terms of service, including privacy controls. Now, even though we are all complaining, we have to stop and think for a minute... Did you read the terms of service before joining? No? Well, then, we should all be happy that Mr. Zuckerberg changed anything back to the way it was at all because under those terms he did not have to, period-and he still does not, according to the Privacy Policy Amendment clause. So, we should stop complaining and deal with it-or stop using Facebook. Oh, yeah... That is something that will never happen; I'm still using it too...

Facebook Privacy Policy
Facebook: Statement of Rights & Responsibilities
Facebook: Principles
Facebook: Site Governance Page
Mark Zuckerberg, "Making Control Simple," The Facebook Blog
Facebook, "Controlling How You Share," Privacy Controls,

Declan McCullagh,"Privacy Groups Assail Facebook Privacy Changes," CNet News
Declan McCullagh, "House Privacy Bill Draws Fire From All Sides," CNet News