Nevertheless, over the years, I have noticed that the privacy settings on Facebook have changed drastically. I often struggle finding the privacy settings. What used to be so easy to navigate, now requires Google searches and Facebook Help. In the article "The Facebook Effect"it says, "At every turn, it seems Facebook makes it more difficult than necessary to protect user privacy." That's exactly how I've been feeling lately. Naturally, this leads to the question of digital identity and whether or not we have control over our own identity on Facebook. Sure, we can control what other people see on our Facebook in regards to photos and posts and information about ourselves, but can we really control what information Facebook gives to other parties about us? Like other businesses, Facebook is driven by revenue. The article asks: "Even if Facebook makes promises about how it will treat our data, how can we be certain it will be used the way it should, not only now but in the future?"
I am constantly getting bombarded with forward messages talking about Facebook privacy and how to manage it so that your account remains secure. Just today I read an article on NBC titled "Manage Facebook's Privacy, Security Settings." It talks about how to block someone, how to limit who can see your friend's list, how to customize privacy settings on Facebook photo albums and videos, and much more. The questions I want to leave you with involve the privacy aspects of Facebook. I'm curious how other bloggers on Media Jamss use the privacy settings on Facebook to their own advantage? Do you feel that the privacy settings are real or do you think that Facebook still has control over your Facebook? Have you, too, noticed a change in privacy settings? And, lastly, do you, as a user, feel that you are familiar with the privacy settings or is it something that you need to look into?
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I am not surpised at all to see that Facebook has made it increasingly more difficult to change their privacy settings. This is how the site "makes money." Mark Zuckerburg recently just sold a whole bunch of user-information to marketers. So those little ads that run along the side of your profile, that are eerily applicable to your life? That is more than a coinkidink. Facebook allowing for complete and utter transparency would be like a Walmart hiding their cash register so you could never check out, it is where the revenue comes from for the site.
ReplyDeleteGoldman Sachs recently invested 500 million dollars into the site. Why? Because statistics shows that there are 60 million users on Facebook,that is 60 million people with internet connections, 60 million people with wallets. Facebook is free for you in the conventional sense of the word, the only thing you pay is your privacy. No matter how many safeguards you set up, and Facebook hides those anyway as you've discovered, they will find a way in and mine your profile for the valuable minerals that is your personal information.
The questions you raise about our own personal privacy settings obviously made me think about what mine our, but then why I have the set to the way I do. As of right now, I have family members, excluding my sister, on a limited profile so that they are not able to see my pictures. The same goes for the people I worked with over the summer who I'm Facebook friends with. Why do I have this? Simply put, I don't want these people knowing about my personal life apart from work and family life. But now, this seems well, stupid to me. In an age where privacy is on the outs, I shouldn't need to censor certain people from my Facebook page but rather remove posts or de-tag pictures that make me wary of allowing family members and co-workers access to my page in the first place. And while this seems like the logical thing to do, I know I probably won't because deep down I don't really want distant relatives and co-workers knowing the inter-workings of my personal life through the internet. I would rather have face-to-face interactions with them than both parties unknowingly checking out each others pages.
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