There's recently been a general uproar across the Intertubez about Facebook's various new privacy issues. In an attempt to expand its presence throughout websites beyond its own, Facebook is sharing more and more of its users' information with third parties. Users are threatening to boycott Facebook, commentators are calling Mark Zuckerberg the spawn of Satan, and I'm pretty sure someone somewhere has set himself on fire in protest. Even senators clearly too old to have ever used it are involved (link). But I for one couldn't care less about Facebook privacy, and here are some reasons why:
1. It's your fault.
The more you let Facebook take over your life, the more of your life it will have. It's like giving your organs freely to a very charming stranger on the street, and then becoming indignant when he has the audacity to sell them. If you don't want your employers to see pictures of your half-naked ass from last night, don't post them.
2. I already think about what I post on Facebook.
My text message history for the last two weeks is easily more embarrassing than all of my Facebook information combined, for the simple reason that I've never Facebooked drunk. Facebook is where a thousand semi-strangers are going to judge me for every letter I mistype, so any time I update my status or tag a new picture, I've already thought through 95% of the possible social and legal consequences. Of course this is definitely not true for Google, where half of my search queries includes something either illegal or pornographic. Or both.
3. Facebook needs to make money, and I need to keep mine.
If you think about it, it's actually amazing that Facebook is still in business. It gives a few hundred million people worldwide an immersive multimedia and networking experience for the princely price of nothing. And how does it do it? With your information. Because in the world of online advertising nothing is more valuable than customer information, and if I have to share my birthdate in exchange for the power to track down long lost friends from elementary school, then so be it.
5. The less privacy other people have, the more easily I will be able to stalk them.
And that's the whole point of Facebook in the first place.
1. It's your fault.
The more you let Facebook take over your life, the more of your life it will have. It's like giving your organs freely to a very charming stranger on the street, and then becoming indignant when he has the audacity to sell them. If you don't want your employers to see pictures of your half-naked ass from last night, don't post them.
2. I already think about what I post on Facebook.
My text message history for the last two weeks is easily more embarrassing than all of my Facebook information combined, for the simple reason that I've never Facebooked drunk. Facebook is where a thousand semi-strangers are going to judge me for every letter I mistype, so any time I update my status or tag a new picture, I've already thought through 95% of the possible social and legal consequences. Of course this is definitely not true for Google, where half of my search queries includes something either illegal or pornographic. Or both.
3. Facebook needs to make money, and I need to keep mine.
If you think about it, it's actually amazing that Facebook is still in business. It gives a few hundred million people worldwide an immersive multimedia and networking experience for the princely price of nothing. And how does it do it? With your information. Because in the world of online advertising nothing is more valuable than customer information, and if I have to share my birthdate in exchange for the power to track down long lost friends from elementary school, then so be it.
5. The less privacy other people have, the more easily I will be able to stalk them.
And that's the whole point of Facebook in the first place.
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