Fedbook: Taking Away Your Access

It’s clear where Facebook stands in respect to business ethics and their user’s rights. They couldn’t care less.

First there was Beacon in 2007 where Facebook’s user activity was openly shared with outside companies unbeknownst to the user. A lawsuit was filed and eventually Beacon was canceled in 2009.

Coincidentally in 2009, Facebook made some unannounced changes to its privacy policy on general search engine accessibility to its user’s Profiles. Once hidden Profile details, Photo albums, Groups details, and Page details had been reset to unhidden, or in other terms made live for search engines to crawl over and store in their own databases.

This means people’s private information was made available online for anyone searching for them.

i.e. Pictures from high school, parties, intimate moments, etc… were now searchable by any interested party.

“Facebook estimates that 20% to 30% of users change their privacy settings. Facebook selected the default privacy settings to reflect what they thought users want.”

(Make sure to write Facebook [ ops@facebook.com and abuse@facebook.com ] and thank them for making such a thoughtful decision to invade your privacy on behalf of only 20 or 30 percent of it’s hundred million users.)

At the top of 2010 Facebook completely changed its user interface in a spectacular overhaul of how user’s information is managed and viewed. The change was so excessive and took so many people by surprise that it was met with a great dissatisfaction from its users across the globe. At that same time Mark Zuckerberg also announced that privacy is no longer relevant. Meanwhile Facebook is staying private about its affairs.

Moral-less Capitalists argue that Facebook shouldn’t be obligated to handle user information responsibly since the service is “free” but that argument is more of a narrow-minded, self-preservationists ideal rather than the real issue. Time and personal information are both extremely valuable commodities of which users are paying with, to use the Facebook service. It isn’t “free,” users are paying.

Overall – this timeline represents a small fraction of how Facebook has misused its user’s personal information. These are just the stories that have been thoroughly proven enough to make it to the mainstream media. And while some stories make it and others do not, the common thread in the reports and the business practice of Facebook is an endeavor to limit your access to your own personal information:

You filled out personal details, they took it away.

You posted on friend’s walls and want to look it over two-weeks later, they’ve kept that information unsearchable.

You once had search fields to traverse the events, groups and pages, listings – those search tools have been revoked as well.

Facebook once started out as a simple and functional way to keep track of co-workers, friends, classmates, and family. It is no longer simple and accessible, and therefore is no longer a tool of functionality. In the past five-years Facebook has intentionally morphed into a frustratingly inaccessible human data farm unless of course, you are a corporation in need of profit generating statistics.

Happy sharing!