Let's Face It, It's Not Facebook's Problem

Facebook recently overtook the U.S. as the third largest country in the world with a population of more than 450 million people. This faceless country may soon overtake the population giants of China and India to become the world's most populated country. Where is it? Everywhere. Who are its citizens? Almost everyone. How do you become a citizen? Give them your name, e-mail address, hometown address, and a picture. The same information one would supply for a passport with any other country. Who are the rulers of Facebook? Here it gets a little sticky.

Mark Zuckerburg is CEO, president, co-founder, secretary of interior, and defense of Facebook but the real rulers are the advertisers. They are the customers of Facebook and as such call the shots. Without the advertisers there would be no Facebook, it would morph itself into Craig's List. And as these advertisers give their money to the country of Facebook they expect results from the country of Facebook, otherwise they will go elsewhere, maybe even the island of MySpace.

These advertisers have products and services which they want to sell to us. We have to know about these products so people like Mr. Zuckerburg make up things like Facebook Country. The advertisers then pay Mr. Zuckerburg for him allowing them into his country to show you their products and services. The better job Mr. Zuckerburg does with his customers the more he gets paid. Folks, it just does not get any simpler than that.

We are the citizens of Facebook and we can decide which of the many products we see in that country we want to buy. We can also decide to say no to any solicitation we get from any advertiser from Facebook Country. It is still our decision. The country of Facebook cannot make you purchase anything. Further no one has to be a citizen of Facebook. Unlike my birthplace of the United States which I am a citizen of without my choosing, I have a choice with the country of Facebook. I can decide to become a citizen of Facebook or leave that country alone. Folks it just does not get any simpler than that.

We get so hung up over privacy when someone else is using what we consider to be private information. Is my name private? I write under my real name by choice so anyone can see it anytime they read one of my articles. I could choose to use a pseudonym. Is my gender private? My name gives away my gender and I have already made that public but I could call myself, Pat. Is the city where I live private? No, many people already know this information. The other day I placed an order over the telephone and the operator already had my name and address just by me calling in. My name is in the Milwaukee phone book and has been for almost twenty-five years. Why am I to get upset now, that someone knows the city I live in? How about the pages I subscribe to and my Facebook friends list, are they private? Well here we are into a gray area. I have chosen not to be bothered by them becoming public. My very few friends within the country Facebook have agreed to also make their names public so I'm not hurting their privacy.

I am intrigued by the country Facebook selling my profile to advertisers. Besides the hair restorers I want to know who else have products which might be beneficial to me. I am particularly intrigued to find out what kind of music Pandora will choose to play for an over 60, post graduate, liberal male who lives in the middle west and enjoys his grandchildren. Maybe it will be The New York Philharmonic playing Puff the Magic Dragon, or Bob Dylan does baroque. This profile selling will be interesting to watch.

Regardless of what they do choose for me I will still have the right to not play the music, or change it to something else. Last are the dark secrets in my closet which my friends can post on their wall and mine. Yes, I have done things in the past and present which I am not very proud of and would even be embarrassed to have them made public. However, I did them and have paid the consequences for them or will. This is part of life, we make choices and sometimes they are not good ones but we cannot expect Mr. Zuckerburg to keep our bad choices private for us.

I admit that I once deactivated my Facebook page but that was not for privacy issues. My issue was too many people wanting to be friends who I had never heard of or knew. My email was loaded daily with friend requests which I routinely deleted. Now I have a private Facebook page. I have become a citizen of the country of Facebook but this time I did not tell anyone. Until now. The current page was started with the idea of writing an article about all of the Kent Hadleys in Facebook country. The article probably never will happen due to lack of interest on the part of the other Kent Hadleys, which is their choice. I also write a blog and if you read that blog you will gather more private information about me than will ever be shared by Facebook. This is true on most blogs I read and these are very public.

Privacy is a private issue. When you participate in a profit venture such as the country of Facebook, you cannot expect them to put your privacy ahead of their profits. Believe it or not there is a life on the outside of the country Facebook. True 450 million people populate the country but more are on the outside. Privacy is your responsibility. If you are concerned about how your privacy is being exposed in Facebook, maybe you need to consider deactivating. You can live comfortably and privately outside of the country of Facebook. The choice is yours. The responsibility is yours.