Facebook changed its privacy settings layout, making it a bit more challenging to opt out completely. As before, unchecking the "Allow" box is not sufficient because you need to block each Instant Personalization website to fully opt out.
And for what it's worth, I'm not the only librarian with FB concerns.
Despite the invitations and cajoling of many friends, I put off joining Facebook for quite a long while. And then I caved.
I've enjoyed connecting with dozens of people I would not have located otherwise, but Facebook's inconstant privacy policies and questionable use of private information is getting under my skin.
Setting up a decent system for controlling your privacy on a web service shouldn’t be hard. And if multiple blogs are writing posts explaining how to use your [i.e. Facebook's] privacy system, you can take that as a sign you aren't treating your users with respect. It means you are coercing them into choices they don’t want using design principles. That’s creepy.
Facebook now discloses personal information to the public that Facebook users previously restricted. Facebook now discloses personal information to third parties that Facebook users previously did not make available. These changes violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook’s own representations. These business practices are Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices.
Thankfully, privacy-minded "nerds" are creating open-source alternatives, including Diaspora*.
The Diaspora* group was inspired to begin their project after hearing a talk by Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia University, who described the centralized social networks as "spying for free" ... The four students met in a computer room at N.Y.U., and have spent nearly every waking minute there for months. They understand the appeal of social networks.
About a month ago I reduced my Facebook profile information dramatically. Today, I'm thinking of contributing to Diaspora*.
Would it be hard to start over on a new social network? Maybe.
As Facebook grew larger and became more important, it could have chosen to maintain or improve those controls. Instead, it's slowly but surely helped itself--and its advertising and business partners--to more and more of its users' information, while limiting the users' options to control their own information.
My B-I-L has a computer and does a certain amount of email, but I was still surprised at the friend request. Then I thought--this is great! He’s finding another way that he can stay in touch with his kids, family and friends, many of whom live in different states. Already we’ve gotten the chance to admire his favorite collector cars through the photos he’s posted on his Facebook profile.
While the Millennials and the Gen-Xers communicate and network with each other online as a matter of course, we Baby Boomers and the generation before us have come late to social networking. We’ve been a bit skeptical, but now we’re fastest growing segment of folks to adopt Facebook, Twitter and other online conveniences.
What is social networking? This brief online video by Common Craft is a good introduction.
Facebook and Twitter are two tools you can use to stay in touch with your social network. Facebook gives you your own homespace on the web, where you can post items of interest and link up with your friends. Twitter is like a telegram—you get and send brief bursts of news (140 characters or less). There are pluses and minuses. As with any Internet application, you have to safeguard yourself.
Iintrigued and want to find out more? The Urbana Free Library has a variety of books that will inform and help you decide if Facebook or Twitter are networking tools that work for you.
And know that The Urbana Free Library has dipped its toes in before you! Visit the library’s Facebook and Twitter sites and check us out! We can be your friends.
