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  1. #1
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    Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    So I just closed my Facebook account of several years today.

    Why? Quite simply: I'm tired of Facebook's constant arrogance and effectively saying "but of course you want to opt into this feature, don't you want your friends to know even more about you?"

    They've just launched their new Places feature, which primarily uses your phone's GPS feature to track your movements. While this particular part is opt-in, what's more concerning is that you're automatically opted in to the part which allows your friends to broadcast your known location themselves.

    My big problem is, I shouldn't keep on having to re-check my privacy settings on a monthly basis. I should be able to set something that says "default off" for all their new anti-privacy features and leave it at that. Instead I have to be acutely aware of everything Facebook does in case information about me ends up there which I really don't want to reveal!

    So there's my rant for the day. Anyone else got serious gripes about Facebook they want to vent?

  2. #2
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    Re: Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    Why not leave Facebook? If the perceived invasion of privacy is so profound that you can't countenance using the service, then don't use it.

  3. #3
    Registered User Isis's Avatar
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    Re: Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    Quote Originally Posted by geoff332 View Post
    Why not leave Facebook? If the perceived invasion of privacy is so profound that you can't countenance using the service, then don't use it.
    He just did

    Quote Originally Posted by DJ Mike View Post
    So I just closed my Facebook account of several years today.

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    Re: Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    I like Facebook. Whats the problem?

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    Re: Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    Quote Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe View Post
    I like Facebook. Whats the problem?
    So do I - My policy is don't give to much info away (eg address or phone number) if necessary set up a separate email address and only accept people who you know who they are and remove anyone you feel uncomfortable about.

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    Re: Facebook's latest anti-privacy venture

    I like Facebook as a tool, what I don't like was when they adopted their more recent policy of deliberately making the default on your profile to be "share everything to everyone in the world", which of course means having to go into your Privacy Settings and turn everything back off.

    It seems like every month, I was going in and finding more things they'd decided I wanted to share with the world about what I was doing, when quite obviously (based on my other settings) I clearly didn't want that to be the case. This "Places" feature is just another example of that.

    So yes, Facebook is good as a tool for keeping in touch with people, it's just a royal mess in terms of their privacy policy. Now, if they would just add a setting that turns all these sharing features off by default, maybe I'd have less of a problem, but it doesn't seem likely they're ever going to do this.

    Just a word to the wise, really: Check your privacy settings on a regular basis!

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