Minnesota, USA –November 14, 2011 – It is likely that our viewers are also Facebook users and endured privacy setting issues over the past couple of years; Facebook would change the settings and not notify its users and also change the users’ settings by making the change the ‘default’. According to recent reports, it may finally be surrendering to the FTC’s requests for change; if it does, it will need to submit privacy audits for the next 20 years –this way we can ensure that it keeps its word. The FTC insists that Facebook get permission prior to changing its settings at all; in addition, users will ‘opt-in’ to changes instead of finding out about the change and then switching it.
What makes users so angry about the privacy setting changes Unfortunately, there were some occasions where people’s profiles and information was available for the public to see. Indeed there are the select few who choose to show profiles, but it is a privacy concern for most of us; Facebook brushed it off by saying that users go to the site to voluntarily share information. However, it seems that Zuckerberg doesn’t realize that we do not want to share that information with everyone; it is like giving the key to your house to a friend –just because your friend has it doesn’t mean you want everyone to have it.
But as angry as some users are, there are not as many of them ‘abandoning’ Facebook forever; although I saw several on my friends list say they were switching to Google+, they were not gone for long. Facebook is taking the popularity power to the next level by exercising its privacy-stripping abilities; if Zuckerberg is not showing his profile to the public, why should he expect us to do so He knows of the changes and can change it almost instantly while the general users need to hear of this information by word of mouth –or rather status update.
Perhaps by this time next week, Facebook users will sigh from relief; no longer will they need to keep checking on the security/account settings to ensure that they are set as they want them to be.
