We all know that Facebook has been making privacy changes over the past few years which supposedly reflects society’s trends toward becoming more open. A new infographic produced by Matt McKeon effectively illustrates how Facebook has steadily decreased the default privacy settings of users’ profiles to be more open. The latest settings are surprisingly open and looking at the image below should make you wonder why Facebook is making profiles increasingly open.
We’ve remixed Matt McKeon’s original animation (which can be found here) to produce the following image:
INFOGRAPHIC: The History Of Facebook’s Default Privacy Settings
Posted by Nick O'Neill on May 9th, 2010 7:21 PM
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It's interesting to see it laid out like that. Am I the only one who thinks as Facebook got more and more user information they took liberty with it knowing full well that 80% their users have no clue what's going on.
Comment by Big Dan — May 9, 2010 @ 6:32 pm
I don't know where he got those stats for 2005, because photos and wall posts were visible to everyone in your college network. There was no privacy setting to block people in your network. From what I remember. – Now I read that those stats are from what HE remembers also.
Comment by Guest — May 9, 2010 @ 7:24 pm
The key word is "default." You have to make an effort to protect your privacy, if you want to.
Comment by Mike Farrell — May 9, 2010 @ 8:47 pm
Outstanding visualization – well done, Matt.
Comment by David Berkowitz — May 10, 2010 @ 10:35 am
Amazing visualization!
And quite scary I should add.
Basically, if I keep the Privacy settings as Facebook default, my entire personal information (excluding pictures and posts) is available to everyone. It's like 1984 all over again…
Comment by Dvir Reznik — May 10, 2010 @ 1:54 pm
I agree, this a great way to visualize it.
Comment by Jeroen Frans — May 10, 2010 @ 8:31 pm
Totally Agreed !!
Comment by Kryptic — May 10, 2010 @ 11:04 pm
Great
Comment by Mini Tuan-Anh — May 11, 2010 @ 2:55 am
Nice visualization.awesome!
Comment by Ahnaf — May 11, 2010 @ 3:44 am
true…good job
Comment by Amota A Merang — May 11, 2010 @ 3:52 am
nice analysis , and today i found that people i was blocking i am able to see their posts
i don't know if it's part of the privacy "everyone sees everything" or it's just a bug!
Comment by Fatima Mohey — May 11, 2010 @ 4:01 am
Love infographics!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Comment by Corrie Davidson — May 11, 2010 @ 4:17 am
These infographics are great.
> should make you wonder why Facebook is making profiles
> increasingly open.
There's really no wondering, here; follow the money.
Facebook wants to own & sell (or rent) any information you give it to anyone who will pay for it. The more private a piece of data, the lower its value to Facebook–because you've told them not to share it. As users tighten their grip on their own data, FB "revises" their "privacy settings" over and over again so that they can default to more and more openness, and keep themselves attractive to advertisers, spammers, etc.
Comment by Hank — May 11, 2010 @ 6:45 am
That you've blocked them doesn't mean they've blocked you back
.
Comment by Feto — May 11, 2010 @ 7:40 am
This could be an interesting way to present this information, but the changing scale in each diagram is misleading. Why do the widths of the rings change? The way it is, it’s not an accurate visualization of data; it makes it smell more like propaganda.
Comment by Vineet Kumar — May 11, 2010 @ 9:14 am
It's misleading for the "network" radius to be rendered smaller in the first chart than in the other charts. Also, IMHO, a standard radar chart is more appropriate for this data. Your radial-bar chart has an exponential effect on the enclosed volume as the data points are further from the origin. This appears as overstating the facts; the facts are strong enough to not need overstating.
Comment by Mike McG — May 11, 2010 @ 11:33 am
Wow. Everybody hurry up and delete your photos and wall posts before they make that public too.
Comment by chris — May 11, 2010 @ 12:27 pm
The idea is great, I like the representation. One thing makes it sub-perfect though – some scrolling is involved, so I can't see it all at once, as a function of time.
Comment by Alex Railean — May 12, 2010 @ 2:34 am
"Why do the widths of the rings change? The way it is, it’s not an accurate visualization of data; it makes it smell more like propaganda."
Could be that, being a circle, the farther out you go the wider the slices of the pie are out of necessity.
Plus, with each successive step outward from the center, there are more people involved. Makes since that "you" being only one person would be the smallest. Next is "friends," containing a greater number of people than "you" but fewer than your "network." It would make sense then to have "friends" make up a larger area than "you" but smaller than "network" and so on.
Comment by Stephen — May 12, 2010 @ 5:19 am
I have to admit this way of presenting information is amazing ! Thank you so much !
Comment by Xavier Guinot — May 12, 2010 @ 6:29 am
this is like watching a little parasite grow! O_O
Comment by Azarel Romeo Louis F — May 12, 2010 @ 8:19 am
This should be the control panel for facebook privacy. Darken the areas you wish to have made public.
Comment by hal — May 12, 2010 @ 8:29 am
@Stephen
The only difference between the first and second graphic is that Photos are now shared with your network, but the second graphic shows a much larger blue area than the first. Unless there is some data associated with the change in scale, it's very misleading.
Comment by Andy Smith — May 12, 2010 @ 10:07 am
These graphs are not the updated ones. For that you need to visit his site. I pointed out to him that in 2005 photos were shared with everyone in your college network, but 2006 is when it changed to allowing the high schools, businesses, then public access, so that's probably why the graph is bigger.
Comment by Guest — May 12, 2010 @ 11:51 am
Nice graph? the circle of 'the entire internet' gets smaller after 2007… making the stat of november 2009 look much worse… so BAD VISUALISATION!
though good information =D
Comment by gast — May 13, 2010 @ 10:21 am
I've noticed a huge increase in spam with my Facebook assigned email. Thank God it's a spam email.
Comment by wowfacebook — May 13, 2010 @ 1:56 pm
roxanne likes this.
Comment by Roxanne Camanyag — May 16, 2010 @ 9:10 am
There's a reason I don't post information about my current employer, my schooling, my political and religious beliefs or the like. They're nobody's business but my own. Any interests in the main part of the profile I have are now gone along with the Instant Personalization opted out from and the three apps (Docs.com, Yelp.com, and Pandora.com) blocked and those sites boycotted.
The only thing I have left I can't block are those sites I have "liked" within Facebook. My likings are public knowledge, and there is no way to make them private without "unliking" them. As such, I have to choose what I "like" very carefully.
While there are those who will close their accounts, I feel comfortable enough understanding Facebook's deliberate gaping privacy leaks and how to plug them or at least deal with them to the point where I feel I can keep the account open. However, there will come a time where I have to tell Zuckerberg where to shove it, hoping that the congressional inquiry into his shenanigans comes sooner rather than later. And any such treatment he gets should not be a slap on the wrist. It needs to be at the very least the equivalent of a pillorying and at most, the equivalent of a beheading.
Comment by IJ — May 17, 2010 @ 1:27 am
This is creepy, but I imagined this would happen soon. Mainly as more companies & brands start doing business here, and publishing social ads, it's inevitable that facebook would become an underground market for brands so they can have free access to millions of potencial customers.
I have been a freak on privacy settings, so I guess we have to learn not to publish every single aspect of our private lifes, if you want them to stay "secret" well you obviously must not publish them, not only on facebook, but on any social network that exists out there.
Comment by Monica Giron Marches — May 17, 2010 @ 9:57 am
just distroyed my FB account
Comment by Bastien Legras — May 19, 2010 @ 12:49 am
This should be the FB control panel for their privacy settings. Just replace 'network' with 'friends of friends' and make each segment an on/off button.
The segment titles around the edge would take you directly to the corresponding section, where you could apply granular settings as needed (e.g. blocking your mother's access to your wall posts, but preserving her access to photos of her grandkids.)
Comment by Alex Bowles — June 3, 2010 @ 7:02 am
I am seriously considering closing my Facebook account. I have been reading all about the history of Facebook and it seem Mr. Zuckerberg likes to take liberties with the privacy of other people. He has no scruples about stealing other people's ideas, and is unapologetic for his misdeeds. I haven't even seen the movie yet..
Comment by G. Robles — October 11, 2010 @ 4:22 am
Its called a noosphere. Get with the program and shed your ego people.
Comment by Overclocked — May 13, 2011 @ 12:39 pm
[...] the info that you post, but there is no reason to include addresses. If you really want someone to know where you live, then tell that (trustworthy) person [...]
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