If Facebook was limited to democratic nations, I could understand Facebook’s decision to leave a lot of data public. However, while Facebook has always been a tool for spreading democracy around the world, it could be making things worse for many users who are under the control of tyrannical dictators and other aggressive regimes. Under the existing privacy system, your identity is only as safe as your weakest link (friend).
Take Iran for example where pro-democracy protestors are using Facebook as a platform to communicate with each other to organize action. Iran is known for pursuing and occasionally arresting those who speak out against the current regime in an attempt to curb further uprisings. There is no doubt that the state is monitoring Facebook usage including Facebook Pages and groups in an attempt to determine who are the greatest threats to the existing regime.
Facebook’s latest privacy settings allow users to prevent non-friends from viewing a user’s friends list. All friends can view your friends list though, something many users have already protested. In countries that pursue protesters and users posting anti-regime comments, all it takes is one person to give their account login and suddenly the regime has access to a wealth of information about other potential protesters.
Facebook has touted itself as a platform for spreading freedom and democracy around the world. For example in Colombia, Facebook was used to organize protests against the Farc. In Iran, Facebook has already been used to try to oust Ahmandinejad. There were protests organized in Croatia and a vocal group also attempted to organize protests in Slovenia. The point is this: Facebook has provided users with the freedom of communication and a certain level of protection from aggressive regimes.
However with the new privacy settings, it only requires one user to break down and give up their password before an entire uprising is squashed. Do you think the new privacy settings truly create risks for pro-democracy supporters abroad or is this a far fetched theory?
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It's quite valid. Before you could hide your friends list from some friends, or from all friends. Now you can't.
So your personal network of friends is exposed, at the very least to your friends list, but for a few hours there it was exposed to the world.
On the other hand, as long as people are using fake names and other fake information they should be safe. The move against privacy on Facebook's part just requires additional creative strategy on the part of it's users (if they choose to continue using the service).
Comment by pseudonymous — December 17, 2009 @ 8:25 am
In their bald pursuit of user data exploitation and ways to monetize the private info they should protect, they are walking a fine line to corporate sellout status! However, they are serving one good purpose in this pursuit … and in my case since I am in a partner late dev on a social network, FB's gaffes are serving as a crystal clear blueprint for what NOT TO DO in the TOS and privacy arena.
Comment by Ric — December 17, 2009 @ 9:34 am
Nick, the option to hide the friend list altogether has been added several days ago.
Comment by Facebook User — December 17, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
@FacebookUser – I have tried to find a way to hide the friend list altogether. Please explain me how to do it. It still says on my FB home page "Note: Your Friend List is always visible to Friends"
Comment by Gabriel X — December 18, 2009 @ 1:13 am
"If Facebook was limited to democratic nations"… Of course you have a fair point in your article, but Nick do not be naive, democratic nations can be as bad as dictatorships: The US, with the Patriot Act and Abu Ghraib, have proven they can perpetrate the worst things imaginable. France did the same in the Algerian war in the 50s/60s.
You can be sure than the CIA and NSA are monitoring Facebook and we should be as suspicious with them as we are with any other intelligence agency. Maybe even more as Facebook has always been quite clear about it: if one the US government asks to give them data about our users, we will.
Comment by Guillaume — December 18, 2009 @ 1:30 am
@Facebookuser, what on earth are you talking about?? Please describe the exact steps to hide the friend list from friends.
Comment by Jimbo — December 18, 2009 @ 3:06 pm
THEY ARE DELETING SOME UNHAPPY USERS' COMMENTS FROM THE ARGUMENT/HELP PAGES SUCH AS;
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=4536&...
they dont want the number to reach the limit of 3000.. cos' if the negative comments number reaches 3000 then they have to change the thing that 3000 people asks for..
go people COMMENT on the help topic pages.. !
Comment by keezar — December 20, 2009 @ 3:14 am
I'm trying to use this for work and I work in a VERY confidential setting- if my 'friends' are able to see my other 'friends' – I am breaching confidentiality. This has really ruined everything for me and my job, I can't message my kids anymore and its preventing me from helping them. PLEASE- we aren't asking for much!!
Comment by mel — December 20, 2009 @ 2:54 pm
This doesn't make any sense. How is removing control from users providing more privacy to users? Facebook needs to either go back to the old settings or change the friend list settings to return privacy to the users.
Comment by Grace — December 21, 2009 @ 10:47 am
Hey Nick. I have tried to find out on how to hide your 'friends list' from your other 'friends'. Cannot figure it out. Have you had any luck yet? Clyde.
Comment by Clyde — January 7, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Recently, i can't seem to access any applications on facebook, and even viewing my profile album from d web.
Why?
Comment by Edison — January 27, 2010 @ 7:31 pm