Facebook invades your online privacy

I recall when I joined Facebook. It was a cold winter’s day when most of you were still in high school; it was Nov.11, 2004, to be exact. I was the 13th member at UM.

When I signed up, it had only been around for a few months. Back in the day, you could spend 10 minutes and browse everyone in your network. I remember a time when it was still “thefacebook.com,” which is a claim that few can boast.

Facebook was simple and harmless enough at first. When it started, it just had the core platform necessary for a social-networking site. In the beginning there were no photos. Only the profile, the wall, messaging and the option to poke were in existence. The Facebook was clean and easy on the eyes, which set it apart from the gaudiness of MySpace.

Then the explosion happened. Facebook suddenly became an Internet phenomenon and everyone was signing up. Soon the photo feature was rolled out, arguably the best addition to the platform. Then there was a big to-do about high school teens being able to join; they were chomping at the bit, and why would Facebook turn willing customers away? The college and high school groups started with a line drawn between them; there would be no crossing over. However, the line quickly blurred and teens became a normal thing on the Facebook scene.

Enter the next big change: the addition of the newsfeed. I was already becoming leery of the social-networking site, but this put a lot of people on edge. There was a time when if you wanted to stalk people on Facebook, you actually had to go through the effort of tracking them down and seeking out activity through groups and friends. With newsfeed you were just a click away from finding out every update and change with the click of a button. Although we jokingly refer to it as the “stalkerfeed,” this is where things really started to take a turn for the worse.

The privacy of your online self was always a concern, which is why Facebook added the option to change your privacy settings. Nobody likes personal information leaked, so it was comforting to see this feature added. Now we can block out faculty, staff and network outsiders from seeing our more sensitive information. Here’s a problem: the privacy settings are almost universally defaulted to the lowest possible security. You have to actively protect yourself, which most folks don’t know.

So you’ve set your security at high. Only your friends can see your whole profile. You’re safe now from potential employers, your boss and all those creepers. But the question remains: Is your personal data safe? The short answer is no. Privacy policy states: “We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile.” OK, I’m a little disturbed. It goes on to say that they “may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.”
Facebook claims they’re not selling our information or sharing it with government agencies (check out the conspiracy theory about funneling data to the government at albumoftheday.com), but I call bullshit.

With the recent addition of third-party applications, Facebook privacy has never been less secure.

On more than one occasion a spammed application spreads its way through the network and mines all sorts of valuable, personal information. Facebook tries to stop them (nobody likes competition), but never acts before the damage is already done.

Now, let’s say you read this information and become (rightly) a little suspicious. Let’s say you become paranoid enough to delete your profile. The easiest thing to do is deactivate your account, but that doesn’t do any good. That means that all your information just hangs out on Facebook’s computers until/if you decide to reactivate your account. That’s not creepy at all. To actually delete your account, you have to find a form buried deep in the help pages. You have to track it down and email a Facebook representative and explain why it is necessary that your profile be removed. Then they have to manually process your request, which frequently takes several days. And even then there are ghost imprints of your profile extant in random places across the platform.

Long story short: Facebook isn’t nearly as innocent as you might think. Just remember to be cognizant and careful about what you do online; someone is watching.