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BooWahBabe
12/15/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
It's like totally cool now how i can look at sites of friends' old boyfriends without anyone knowing and see pictures of people that they would die to find out "non-friends" are seeing. Thanks Z!
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Barts
12/15/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
I might be totally off the mark here, but there is one thing that is bugging me now that I have read numerous statements about people's settings turning to "Friends of Friends" and to "Everyone"

Could you please share with us whether you are from Europe or United States?

As far as I know, privacy laws are much more strict in European Union and therefore it would make sense if US folks' settings were being reverted to "Everyone" and EU folks' settings to "Friends of Friends".

I am somewhat curious about that and it could provide a valuable insight if people shared this detail here.

As for me, some of my settings were reverted to Friends of Friends and few to Everyone (but I might be wrong here, since I have not checked in a while).
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Barts
12/15/09

@Barts: Also, I find it all infuriating. I will be pruning my friends list from all folks I am not very familiar with and will be removing all my photos, fan sites and personal info.

I am sorry to see Facebook do that. I used it as a civilised equivalent of Nasza Klasa (most popular Polish community portal, extremely crappy and populated by rednecks) or MySpace (which I always found, ahem, distasteful and badly organized). I have many friends and colleagues in numerous foreign countries where I lived and worked and I used Facebook to keep in touch with them. It was more convenient than emails, easier and faster.

Now, I must limit my profile, remove information, remove photos - because I don't trust the service any more. And it makes me sad, because I will not rebuild that network easily.

Not cool.
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mbak
12/15/09

@Barts: I'm in Europe (Germany) and mine almost all of my settings were reverted to "everyone" before I set them back to "friends"
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Barts
12/15/09

@mbak: Hmm, then my little theory just fell to pieces. That happens.
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whiteknight89 digs DBZ
12/15/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
Its simple, really. Double check to see if your old settings grandfathered on. Its really not that hard.

I understand that this was underhanded, but then again, is there any 3rd party that we should trust unquestioningly?

Its your privacy, and you should take it seriously. That involves actual work. If you're not ok with working to protect yourself, they you don't deserve privacy/shouldn't have a Facebook.
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KelseyElle
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
I wasn't very bothered by this until I realized that Facebook had chosen setting for my photos and indexing that were not my original defaults. I chose the "keep previous defaults" option but those were definitely not my previous defaults. I do not want to be searchable on Google and I do not want randos creeping on my pictures.

Very shady Facebook! Shame on you!
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djlovering
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
I have to admit the attraction of Facebook was it's limited sharing capabilities with strangers when I joined back in the old college days. So I completely disagree with what they're doing and especially for the reasons they're doing it. At the same time, I don't really consider it a betrayal. I haven't given Facebook one penny, and they have every right to do whatever the hell they want. I'll take my profile down and move on if I feel like it. They really don't have a gun pointed at any of our heads (though I guess it fells like it to some.)
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MissNormaDesmond
12/14/09

@djlovering: Actually, no, they don't. Please don't ever teach business ethics.
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straightbuggin
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
Facebook, why are you sucking so hard right now? Fact of the matter is, whether we were "warned" or not, WE STILL HAD NO SAY. I log into fb daily, and I would have definitely seen an option to reject the new setting had it been given. Switching the interface, Terms and Conditionsgate, and now this- have all been subtle ways to confuse us enough so that when it really matters, Facebook will subtly slip our info to the highest bidder. If Facebook actually ever listened its users, they might actually *gasp!* generate more revenue! Instead, you get users getting fed up, and slowly, but surely, using the site less and less.

I remember being the first person from my school to join (I though I was so cool when I had to add in all our info) Facebook, and thinking that I could enjoy using the site because I felt so safe. Now it's all money-grubbing bullshit.
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margit
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
No one could have kept all of their old settings, because some of them don't exist anymore, and many of them were combined into new settings. Education and work were combined. Status, links, notes, photos, and videos were all combined into "Posts by Me". See here for screenshots:
[dotrights.org]

The real bait & switch was the outing of friends lists, though. It would have been nice to know about that ahead of time. I guess if you're still on facebook, you should be prepared for any given privacy setting to be eliminated without notice at any given time.
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meg9
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
I deleted my fan pages, and changed my profile pic to pictures of places I like a lot. I'm VERY angry about this change, as I was a fan of some things that I might be perfectly happy for a friend to know, but not perfectly happy for a future possible employer to see if they popped on facebook and searched me. Having friends see that I'm a fan of an eating disorder recovery group, for instance, was perfectly fine. But the idea of anyone searching for my name seeing my picture, where I live, and my fan pages was just too much. The "publicly available information" needs to go back to its original status. I don't know ANYONE who is happy with the change.
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Accidental Billionaire
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook CEO's Private Photos Exposed by the New 'Open' Facebook
It should be a crime for Zuckerberg to pose a professional.

Zuckerberg is the luckiest kid in the Valley. He has had unheard of opportunity fall right into his grasp for little more than running a website for stuck-up yuppies.

Despite running at the helm one of the world's most popular websites, he has done nothing to monetize his website into something more than just a hangout for youngsters.

You get what you'd expect from a preppy 20-something: A treehouse for college kids and a tip jar.
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Edited by Accidental Billionaire at 12/14/09 4:56 PM

MissNormaDesmond
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
Shit. I'm mad at myself for not getting a screen shot of this, but after I'd gone in on Saturday and set everything to "Friends" again and deselected the ability for me to be found on FB by googling, yesterday morning on logging in I got an incredibly (and I would bet deliberately) confusing opening screen meant to persuade me to set my options back to the ones FB had chosen for me, including making my contact info available to everyone (including, of course, third party marketers, who are meant to be the principal beneficiaries of all this). I was incredibly pissed, and refused the new settings immediately, then kicked myself for not having gotten evidence of how incredibly fucked up the new system is.

They really are the devil now, and some better means of protesting that than deleting profiles needs to be found, because there's not a lot of sense in a protest that leaves me unable to enjoy the benefits of having made it should FB agree to revert to the old system.
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MidTwix
12/15/09

@MissNormaDesmond: YES - I had the same thought. When someone like my mother is confronted with that pop up, she is going to be stumped, and think that Facebook is trying to help her, not dupe her (yes, my mother is on Facebook - that was a sad day).

I also thought it was interesting that in the Privacy Settings, under the "Search" option - here is the language I was confronted with --- "There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information."

It's a lie wrapped in an enigma.
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cassandra
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
Facebook will never listen without proof.

Gawker should pioneer a "Deactivate your Facebook Account Day." Deactivation is temporary and changes none of your settings. If everyone can stay off of it for just 24 hours, it's a great way to send a message to Facebook.
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unclevanya
12/14/09

@cassandra: I already thought to start a "Leaving Facebook Jan 1 if the Privacy Settings Remain Evil" group, but the interface doesn't really tell you how to start a new group anymore. I wonder why.
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benjwah004
12/15/09

@cassandra: That we can go without them for 24 hours, but not much more?
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cassandra
12/15/09

@benjwah004: EXACTLY.

No, that their income is fragile. And that their income is us.
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Poodle_Heart
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
There's lies and there's telling the truth.

They lied to users, deliberately, hugely, and with malice and forethought.

The market won't like that.

They just shaved a few zeros off their valuation.
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Edited by Poodle_Heart at 12/14/09 4:49 PM Poodle_Heart was starred Poodle_Heart was unstarred

Kyle
12/15/09

@If_I_Had_a_Poodle: The "market" won't like the fact that more information is available to advertisers, which will ultimately improve FB's cash flow? You for real?

And in the grand scheme of things, the number of users that "revolt" in disgust will be a rounding error in Facebook's total user count.
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Poodle_Heart
12/15/09

@Katie Town: Trust is the single most valuable commodity. Facebook just set fire to that. Discuss.
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Nigerian Business Executive
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
Speaking of Facebook and privacy, can someone please tell me why FB wants to drop cookies and a bit of javascript on me when I visit Gawker Media sites even if I'm not using FB to log in (which I would never do)?
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Wenceslaus
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
I deleted my account the day they announced the new settings. It is seriously not cool that it is now impossible to make your profile unsearchable by anyone who's not already your friend, and that anyone in the world can see your name, photo and location. This means that, for example, my abusive ex-boyfriend could have found out how I look now and where I live now, and there was nothing I could do to stop that. I am not entirely sure that Facebook's legal team fully considered the ramifications of that, but hey. I don't particularly miss Facebook so I think I'll be fine.
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MissNormaDesmond
12/14/09

@Wenceslaus: Jesus.
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pmarble
12/14/09

In reply to Facebook's Great Betrayal
There is no doubt that Zucker was lying and knew he was lying with that bullshit letter. However, I didn't find it that hard to return to my prior privacy settings (especially keeping my pictures private) and I am two steps shy of a luddite.
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MissNormaDesmond
12/14/09

@pmarble: First, the fact that they were changed without your permission should piss you off in any case. Second, I'm not sure things are really back to what they were before even if you pick the most restricted settings available now.
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