Lately Facebook has been going through quite the changes, but how are their users adjusting? Not just with the way Facebook looks, the social networking site has changed their privacy terms and conditions as well. Part of Facebook’s mission statement is to, “…make the world more open and connected.” However, do we really want that?
The first privacy fail was in 2009 when Facebook reset their privacy settings without warning. This change exposed your “about me” page, friends list, and posts such as status updates, links, photos, videos, and notes to the public for anyone to see.
The next failure was when Facebook manually switched privacy settings to “friends only” mode. This did not prevent all personal information from being shared with third party applications or friends of users signed up with third party applications. Seventeen percent of users still use no privacy settings at all and 13 million U.S. Facebook users have never opened their privacy settings. The consequences of unknowingly posting private information publically was a feed at weknowwhatyouredoing.com that allows Facebook updates of individuals to be seen with no privacy setting.
In 2010, Facebook was caught giving user info to online giants. The user information is being used to “recommend” their products to show up on other sites. However, contracting Facebook’s own privacy policy section 5, it states, “We do not share your information with advertisers without your consent.” Fail.
Once Facebook released the timeline feature, people reacted in different ways. Only 7.96% of users said they liked the new timeline layout, however, there were 51.29% who said they were worried about the timeline. The Facebook timeline changed the whole fabric of Facebook, it unearthed material from years prior that made many users feel uncomfortable. Not to mention, once the timeline was turned on, you could not turn it off.
Facebook then focused on making money, at the expense of it’s users. In May 2012, Facebook went public with an initial public offering of $38 a share on the first day, they traded. By September 2012, the value of a Facebook share lost 47% of it’s value, bringing the cost to $18 a share. However, the current value is $27 per share of Facebook stock.
To learn more about Facebook’s privacy fails check out the infographic below presented by topwebdesignschools.org.
Image compliments of Top Web Design Schools