Facebook, privacy, wake-up call

Facebook was great, wasn't it? All of a sudden everyone you'd ever known was right there and you could: 1. catch up with them and be "friends" again or 2. pacify that sneaking curiosity about what they might be doing with their lives, who they might be dating, whether they're very successful, and if they've had children. It was like your 10 year high school reunion except you could hide behind your computer. In fact, Facebook became popular right around the time my 10 year high school reunion should have taken place. So we all became friends on the website and nobody showed up to the reunion. Our ex-Student Council was shocked.

And, of course, Facebook made us a part of something, part of a group that didn't depend on any of our acquired hobbies, whatever knitting website or writing group we'd ever joined. Based on nothing except ourselves, it was an equalizer. Your ex-boyfriends joined Facebook, but so did your mom. And together we poked and status-updated and and Farmvilled to our heart's content.

There are some neat side-effects of the information gathered by Facebook. Status updates can be used to display and predict the general happiness of each country around the world. And with so many different applications their system of setting privacy levels for each bit of information, each action taken by their users, is impressively complicated. No, wait: I mean it's awful. It's so complicated you have to drill down several clicks just to find out that your Facebook page and all its private content has been linked to Mashable, TV.com, and a hundred other sites you had no intention of sharing. Or you aren't told anything at all until your user profile photo is used in an online dating ad.

In fact, Facebook isn't even the same site we joined a few years ago. Don't take the constantly shifting Terms of Service as indication. Look at this nifty graphic, Evolution of Privacy on Facebook. Click the years on the right and see how much more of your information is public and available to everyone, by default. In fact, the only thing that is no longer available to everyone on the Internet by default right now is your birthday. And in my experience, most people set their birthday as public anyway-- lovely, carefree people, sharing their special day, completely forgetting that government and banking institutions still use this special day as a security question. This, and your mother's maiden name. Oh look, there she is, your mother, on Facebook. And believe me, her maiden name is no mystery.

It's insane. This erosion of our privacy, and our ignorance of the erosion, is really very surprising. But it should be terrifying. Last week I saw someone's Twitter profile where they listed their birthday and place of birth. Place of birth, too? Yes. Another security question, out in the open. As a friend put it, "What, no credit card number? Where's the trust?" But don't worry. Amazon has all your credit card numbers. Just wait until they automatically connect with Facebook without telling you. Won't that be fantastic?

Further reading:
"Facebook's Gone Rogue"
"Facebook CEO Doesn't Believe in Privacy"
"Facebook's High Pressure Tactics: Opt-in Or Else"
"Even Mark Zuckerberg Doesn't Understand Facebook's New Privacy Settings"
That Nifty Graphic Again

But don't blame the CEO. Take control of your own information and ensure that there is nothing (absolutely nothing) on Facebook (or at any other public site!) that you would not want everyone to see. And by "everyone" I don't just mean your mom and your potential employer. I also mean the guy trying to steal your credit cards and your identity.

No, really.

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Photos: 100 procent privacy by BlubrNL, Facebook by Balakov, & Facebook by Franco Bouly, on flickr