That Smith

I am amazed by the instant outlash against Facebook and Ruchi Sanghvi all over a few simple changes that were made yesterday.

As of this moment 45,541 people have signed a petition claiming the new features “call into question the safety and privacy of its more than 9 million users” and they “Demand the immediate removal” of these new features. Countless Facebook groups have also surfaced to oppose these new features; one of which already has 303,215 members.

These new features simply replaced the older, dull homepage of Facebook with one that quickly updates you on your friends and changes they have made to their profile. What some of you are missing is that this “new” Facebook is exactly the same as before, except instead of getting a message that says “X has updated her profile” and being left to guess or ask what’s different, you are now told.

Yesterday I logged on and noticed that one of my friends is now single. Would I have discovered this if it said “X has updated her profile”? Probably not. Should she worry that I know? No, because I’m her friend.

I think the biggest thing we face here is that too many of us are dropping our personal information where everyone can see it, and then we expect someone else to keep it safe or assume no one but our friends will look. That is not how it works.

I’ve heard Facebook, Myspace, Xanga, …, each called “stalker.com” numerous times, when in fact they all have privacy settings most of you don’t use.

I suggest that you, 1) don’t put anything online you wouldn’t want your grandma (employer, recruiter, enemy) to see. And, 2) control your #$^* network! So many of you add people or join groups just because you think its cool to have a big number next to your name. That’s not what this is for. Facebook is for networking with your friends. If you don’t want people to see what you’re up to then don’t put it online or don’t add them as a friend.

Facebook has heard your lame excuse for a protest so shut up.