Facebook’s Privacy
May 26, 2010
Facebook’s privacy crisis likely hasn’t done the company much lasting damage, according to reports suggesting that the site is still adding users and increasing traffic. Yet only Facebook has access to account-deletion data, so it’s hard for outsiders to say how much harm the privacy scandal has really done, notes Caroline McCarthy.
Facebook to put privacy changes to US Congress
Politicians have been among the most vocal critics of Facebook’s privacy changes, which have seen an increasing amount of personal information shared with friends on the site by default. Four US Senators wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, calling for “guidelines to be established for social networking sites..on how information can be shared or disseminated to third parties”.
After months of complaints on Facebook’s gung-ho attitude to its user’s private data, Mark Zuckerberg has relented. Facebook will streamline its privacy settings. But did Zuckerberg really do an about-face on privacy or not? Mark Zuckerberg’s confessional letter appeared today on the Washington Post’s Web site, and its headline suggests a no-nonsense piece of writing: “From Facebook, answering privacy concerns with new settings.” Straight away this sounds promising–Facebook is aware that people are concerned about how Facebook is exposing their information, and is acting on it.
Three Reasons Why a Brand Should Think About Pulling the Plug on FacebookFacebook has been staring down privacy challenges, user revolts and even legal onslaughts almost since its inception. With the social network’s membership heading for the 500 million mark, it would be inconceivable for a marketer that has painstakingly built its Facebook page to abandon it over yet another outcry over its privacy practices.
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