Main Bloggin Question #1 – Facebook Privacy

Following on from a previous blog post in which I posted comments from Mark Zuckerberg regarding a number of new products released by Facebook to simplifying users options in terms of privacy on the popular social network website, I will attempt to answer the following question in this blog post:

Analyse critically the following statement by Mark Zuckerberg while comparing it to privacy issues raised by online social networking collaborative practices

Firstly, it is very important to understand that the changes being announced in this video by the creator of Facebook, are directly a reaction to the criticisms made regarding the many issues that exist with Facebook, particularly after the launch of the News Feed, which records and shows everything one’s Friend does on the website in one place. That includes everything from adding new pictures, adding new Friends, posting on someone else’s Wall, commenting on someone else’s pictures or updating one’s relationship status (Boyd, 2008, p. 13).

This might be billed as “convenient”, in that it allows users to see everything their rinds (and their friends for that matter) are doing, but it is also a privacy nightmare, as your updates, photos, relationship status might be being seen by people whom you do not know or people who you had never wanted to see such personal information. Prior to the changes being announced in this video, it was rather difficult to ascertain just who was seeing what you put on Facebook and just as difficult to change your settings.

In this context it is easy to see that these comments from Mark Zuckerberg, and the changes he is announcing are a direct attempt to quell user fears about the privacy of their information, and allow for easier control over who is able to see what you are sharing on Facebook. The “master control” discussed in the video is the prime example of this, one simple setting that determines whether or not your information is accessible by all users of Facebook, your friends and their friends, or just your own friends. This returns an element of control to the user that went missing when the “News Feed” was first implemented. This loss of control greatly undermines one’s sense of privacy, as privacy is not percieved by how many people know certain information about oneself, but how much control one person has over such personal information. Once control is lost, there is no privacy (Boyd, 2008, p. 15). The changes announced in this video are directly addressing this issue, by handing control back to the user, an important public relations move by Facebook, to help restore confidence in their users that their date and personal information is viewable only to those whom they want it to be.

What is interesting about this video however is that Zuckerberg does not criticize the “News Feed” idea, but rather, continues to promote it as a tool for convenience, agragating all the information Facebook allows users to share in one place. There is no fundamental change in principles here, and as such, Zuckerberg continues to insist that Facebook’s goal is to allow people to share themselves with the rest of the world. To be fair, he has a point. One might argue that if you do not want anyone to be able to connect with you, then there is no point in you owning a Facebook account, but that is a debate for another day. What is of fundamental importance however is that users retain as much control as possible over their information, a goal Facebook is obviously working on as demonstrated by the new privacy settings discussed in this video.