Over the past year, I said over and over how I hated Facebook. People routinely asked me during phone calls and at networking events to clarify my reasoning.
I always said it was due to the walled garden effect, whereby the only people who could see my Facebook profile and status updates were my friends and networks, whereas anyone with or without a LinkedIn profile or a Twitter account could see either of those!
In a stunning–albeit, unsurprising–turn of events today, Facebook announced it tore down their wall and allows any of their users to share any of their content with anyone else.
Think about that for a moment.
Jesse Stay elaborates:
This means that by going into your privacy settings on Facebook and selecting “everyone” on various profile options, Google can now index it, non-friends are able to see it, and it puts Facebook “face-to-face” in the “worldwide conversation” with Twitter. Yes, Facebook has just killed the walled garden.
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Facebook for the past year because the only people who could see my content were friends of mine. This is precisely why, about six to eight weeks ago, I voided mutual Facebook friendships with anyone I hadn’t met or spoken to personally. What’s that saying about hindsight?
No more. I just went through my privacy settings and marked nearly everything to be viewable by “everyone,” with the caveat that only my “friends” can see my other friends and only selected categories of friends can see my tagged photos. Everything else is open to the world.
And here’s the kicker: Even if you choose not to allow everyone to see your content, suppose you’re my friend and I mention you in a Facebook note that I allow Google to index. That means Google now sees you, even if you don’t let it see you.
I still dislike Facebook–but I don’t hate it anymore. The times are changing, and I’m ready to open up my Facebook wall of privacy. If you want to be my Facebook friend, click here for my profile.
Photo credit: pardeshi
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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Sounds like an excellent reason to love facebook…
However, I know that there are going to be a lot of people that will hate facebook for the reason you noted. With the privacy issues that just popped up in their TOS, how many people will flip when they find out Google can index everything about them that others post on their FB profiles?
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RT @ariherzog Facebook has “killed the walled garden”: [link to post]
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Wow, that’s way cool I did not know that. Maybe it will make up for some of the boneheaded mistakes that they have been making over there.
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Ari,
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Facebook groups are still walled in? If so, maybe that’s next.
John
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You may be right.
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@ariherzog – Facebook Profiles can now be indexed on Google. What wall will be torn down next? [link to post]
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Why I Don’t Hate Facebook Anymore [link to post]
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RT @styletime: Why I Don’t Hate Facebook Anymore [link to post]
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Reading: RT @styletime: Why I Don’t Hate Facebook Anymore [link to post]
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Eh, I’d love to remove all content, set my profile to public and live on…
but because of the private nature in the past, I have some stuff that I’m not willing to share with everyone… and it’s too much work to filter that.
I don’t like their move.
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If you don’t change your privacy settings, you won’t be affected. You have to manually make a change, as I did.
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RT @chriswmartin: Reading: RT @styletime: Why I Don’t Hate Facebook Anymore [link to post] – more around recent changes there…
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Facebook removes walls [link to post] – I’m still not that bothered. At all.
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“Google can see you even if you don’t want them to.”
And this is a good thing?
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It’s part of teaching the machine to learn, isn’t it?
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RT @ariherzog: If you hadn’t heard, I don’t hate Facebook anymore. [link to post] Do you?
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I had a facebook account for awhile, I didn’t use it much for over a year, maybe more. I added a friend at the friend’s request and within a few days I ended up adding dozens of friends through a network of friends (close to 100). I was a prominent member of an organization of which former members now seek support through networking tools like facebook.
In addition to adding many friends I did have some nude pictures on there, I admit that I did not read the fine print and I thought that only a few friends could see the pictures.
I’m a little surprised that freedoms are surpressed and censorship is so punitive when facebook friendships are restricted to only those you allow to see your account. What happens between friends is the business of facebook? I was sharing pictures with close friends only. I wouldn’t want my mom to see them, therefore I wouldn’t accept her as a friend. Without warning my account was disabled.
I have mixed feelings about it. I question how “private” facebook is and I question their “punishment.” There was never an opportunity to correct the situation, which I would have gladly done. I question the “right” facebook has to allow you to establish a network that they arbitrarily take away, without any kind of due process there will be friends with which I will never be able to reconnect.
There are limits to how much any business can regulate or censor its customers, even violate their constitutional rights, when they invite the public to their business. If I am in a store and the store doesn’t like a picture I show a friend, can the store kick me out? Can they ban me from the store permanently? How far does public policy allow us to go with the censorship?
Facebook is a private company, but so is the telephone company and they can’t disconnect a call because they don’t like the subject of my conversation. The post office is not public and they can’t refuse to deliver mail for which they find the contents offensive. If I violate the policies of the phone company, post office or any store they do not have the right to dismiss me permanently without a warning, notice or hearing. Personally, I think it is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Generally harm or loss must attach. In addition to the emotional distress people suffer, what about the connections people make to stay with others around the world? When those connections are lost, it isn’t difficult to calculate a monetary loss. In addition to many other scenarios, there may even be medical or healthcare advice being exchanged that could cause serious injury or death. I realize that facebook is putting the public on “notice” when it has the policy online. However, those wrap-around or adhesion contracts do not stand up in every state. Facebook should have an expectation that they could be hauled into court in any jurisdicton through long arm statutes and international treaty. I’m sure they address that in their “contract” as well, but, again, those don’t always stand up.
What’s also interesting is that apparently some receive a warning and some do not. This is but one of the warnings found on facebook’s “help center warnings.”
“You received this warning because a photo or video that you uploaded has been removed for violating Facebook’s Terms of Use. Photos and videos containing nudity, drug use, or other graphic content are not allowed, nor are photos or videos that depict violence or that attack an individual or group. Unfortunately, for technical reasons, we are unable to provide further information about the removed content. In order to prevent this from happening in the future, please refrain from posting photos or videos of this kind and remove any that still exist on the site.”
http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=421
Apparently there are different standards for different individuals. It would be interesting to see the different standards used for different groups. In other words, is facebook discriminating? Does facebook have less tolerance for gays, lesbians, blacks, hispanics, women, etc.? They invited the public, they have to play by the rules of our society. The rules include some constitutional rights. While it is true that I don’t have to join facebook anymore than I have to go to a store, it is also true that no one ever said facebook had to open a business and invite the public.
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