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Yesterday while answering questions from reporters, Mark Zuckerberg made it fairly clear that users will soon be able to decide whether or not information they share is public or private. Currently on Facebook, “public” for most items means to display information among your friends and in the rare instance information among your network and even sometimes to Google.
Managing your privacy controls is already a relatively complex process. Just last month I wrote a guide to managing your privacy on Facebook. More than half a million people have viewed that guide and thousands of people continue to view it daily. It has also become the most bookmarked item on Delicious for the past 30 days.
While I didn’t expect the article to be so popular, the popularity of the article highlights one thing in particular: most people don’t understand how to manage their Facebook privacy settings. This is a huge problem for Facebook because as I previously wrote, Facebook presents a “facade of privacy” when you register for the site. There’s an unwritten agreement with Facebook when you join the site in which most users assume that what goes on the site, stays within the site.
That’s why we often see users that are surprised when they get fired for items they’ve posted on the site. The reality is that for the most part, nothing that we post on the web is truly private yet Facebook is determined to suggest that some of what we post is. Facebook’s fundamental belief is that users should be able to control what is visible to the public and who within their social graph can see specific information.
Contrast Facebook’s concept with Twitter which turns privacy into a light switch for users, it is simply on or off. While Twitter has perhaps oversimplified the way we fundamentally view privacy, they’ve made it easy for users to manage. At some point over the past couple weeks, I argued that Facebook’s complex privacy system may be its greatest weakness.
In a world which is moving toward the elimination of privacy online, is Facebook just standing in the way of the inevitable? Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that transition that’s taking place but at the end of the day I feel like we become the human forms of routers, switching packets of information between private, public, and semi-private routes. Can users truly manage this complex thing called granular privacy?
I for one welcome more granular privacy control in Facebook. Now that makes me really looking forward to the new release.
It is up to each user to decide how much control to turn on, but at least the options are there.
Frankly the way facebook USED to have their privacy was the easiest and best to understand for me. It allowed me to SPECIFICALLY choose what I wanted to be shown. Instead, they’ve bundled too much information together and it ends up being an ‘all or nothing’ scenario.
Perhaps I want to show only parts of my wall? I dislike how it’s either show the entire wall - or nothing at all. Or show all the basic info. or nothing at all.
Give me more flexibility!
It’s all how you manage it. Alongside their three basic levels (public, friends-only, private), LiveJournal allows extremely granular access customization. This permits people to share along a much broader social range without fear, from the casual update or meme to deeply personal and emotional experiences. And they’ve made it easy enough that it’s used regularly by a variety of users. If LJ can, surely Facebook can!
I don’t think it’s granular _enough_ in that I want to be able to prevent some groups of users from seeing one or two specific items in my general info, or specify that a particular post should be shown only to my “VIP” group of friends. It’s not that it’s too complicated; the chunking of what constitutes an item to be shown or hidden is wrong.
Twitter is _too_ simplistic. There are definitely people that I want to communicate with there, but don’t want them to see everything I post. I guess that’s where DMs come in, but it’s not as convenient as having another level or two of access.
There are still a lot of problems with the current system. Tagging allows information to pass to people outside the circle for whom it was intended. (Sometimes very useful when I want to know what my kids are getting up to.) There needs to be a simple way of allowing members to distinguish between different categories of friend - acquaintances, family, close friends etc.
It does necessary to invest a bit of time into getting your settings right, but doesn’t this mean that users have more control over their content?
I am beginning to genuinely wonder if Facebook might have a major innovation up their sleeve with regards privacy controls. Maybe the next major update will revolutionise the way we control how our info is shared.
I agree with those who would like even MORE controls. I’m a bit annoyed that you can set very specific privacy for photo albums, but not per individual picture. I’ve have photos that on an individual basis I want to block a certain few from seeing, and it’s annoying to know that you need to set up a whole new album for that one photo…rather than pop it into an established album and just set that ONE PHOTO to the privacy “exception.” I also have no desire to lump them together in one album, because sometimes they are specific to another album “theme.” Photo by photo privacy options would be VERY nice.
I agree that granual is better. “All or nothing” privacy has, IMO, been a factor in Myspace’s downfall. I love that on Facebook I can block certain “friends of friends” from seeing my presence online, that you can block individuals versus entire groups from certain profile aspects rather than all, etc.
I fail to see how the complexity of it can be blamed for people failing to take control and responsibility over their own content. “It’s too hard for some” shouldn’t strip EVERYONE of features that many appreciate.
1. Settings->Privacy Settings->Profile, click “[?]” next to Friends tells you “Use this to control who can see the full list of your friends on Facebook.” Set it to “Only Friends”.
2. Settings->Privacy Settings->Search, set “Search Visibility” to “Everyone”, check “My friend list”.
Complete strangers can now see your friends list using search, despite the fact that in Step #1 you set your profile setting for “Use this to control who can see the full list of your friends on Facebook.” to “Only Friends”. I emailed Facebook support that they should at least change the text on the profile setting. I was essentially told it was “By Design.” (Same logic applies profile settings versus “Public Search Listing” setting under Search.)
As an added privacy bonus, whoever handled my concerns regarding who could see my PII could in fact see my privacy settings. I hope Facebook screened this person who can see my information.
I haven’t talked to anyone yet who understands how to navigate the obfuscated system that promotes sharing (aka low-privacy) on Facebook.
I’m annoyed that once one of my friends makes a comment about one of my photos, then all of their friends can see my photos. I chose the “FRIENDS ONLY” setting for a reason! There definitely needs to be a way around this.
I also would like the option of not allowing friends to tag anyone but him/herself in photos, again, this allows someone other than only my friends to see my photos.