It seems that Facebook can’t make a move these days without opening a fresh can of worms when it comes to online privacy issues. From the ‘panic button’ issue with the Conservative party to the latest fire they have come under regarding their new ‘like’ feature.
Users of the popular social networking site may have noticed that instead of becoming a ‘fan’ of something or someone, they now ‘Like’ them. On the face of things, this may seem like it is just a terminological change, but this is actually part of the wider rollout of Facebook’s new Open Graph API and “instant personalisation” features which uses your profile information on third party sites such as Pandora and Yelp.
New York Senator Charles Schumer wrote a letter to the FTC on Sunday pushing for the creation of privacy guidelines for Facebook and other social networks. According to Schumer, the heart of the issue is that Facebook roll out these features which can directly affect the privacy of the user and then place the responsibility on them to opt out of it rather than ask them whether or not this is something they want to be a part of.
Facebook, however, see it differently. They were quoted by an ABC local news affiliate as saying “none of these changes removed or reduced people’s control over their information”. Although that’s true, it’s also true that thanks to the new functions your information is now viewable in a lot more places than it once was and this slipped in without much of the user base knowing about it.
Interestingly, this subject doesn’t seem to have sparked much debate amongst the usually very vocal Facebook user base. Traditionally, Facebookers are very opposed to change, but this one seems to have snuck through the net, despite widespread political and media criticism. It’s unlikely that even if the traditional ‘1,000,000 to turn Facebook back’ groups did crop up the way they have in years past that Facebook would back down on these new features, but it will certainly be interesting to see whether the FTC get involved and if so, to what extent.
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