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Farewell to Facebook, at least for now
My friends think I'm crazy ... overreacting. I've gone and done it, though.
I've deactivated my Facebook account.
My privacy settings were set to be as restrictive as Facebook allows, and I still didn't feel comfortable with it. Not because I have anything to hide, but because I don't trust Facebook to not use my information (and that of my friends) for evil, or even to adequately protect it.
What's the big deal? Like me, you might be thinking, "I have nothing to hide. Who cares if Facebook collects personal information and sells it?" That's a fair statement; pretty much every large company we do business with today does that. The problem here is that Facebook tells us that we can trust it, but then it repeatedly changes the rules on us to suit its own needs. Facebook is within its legal rights to do this, but that doesn't make it right.
I have a friend whose identity was stolen a few weeks ago via a Facebook exploit, and he's in a living hell now. Facebook's new Instant Personalization pilot is so controversial that it's being debated on the floor of the US Senate, and the latest change -- switching your interests to keyword links that you have to individually opt out of -- is a completely transparent user-hostile move. A few months ago, Facebook changed the privacy defaults to be completely public (in other words, not at all private) and pitched it as an improvement to their privacy controls. In fact, those privacy controls are so convoluted (and it's hard to imagine that it isn't intentional) that even when you think you've got it locked down, there's a good chance that your friends don't, and they could be sharing information about you.
Google's mission statement is to "organize the world's information," and their motto is, "Don't be evil." What's Facebook's mission? Where do they stand on being evil?
Actually, we know Facebook's mission statement: "Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected." Of course, back in 2008, it was: "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life." It's certainly not "to be the best place in the world to connect and share with friends and family," even though that's what Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy at Facebook, claimed it is in a recent New York Times article.
Though Mr. Schrage points people to view his Facebook profile and compare it with Mark Zuckerberg's, at the time writing his profile comes up as a missing page. What happened, Elliot, share a little too much information, maybe? If you need to get a better understanding of your privacy policies, check out this info graphic in the New York Times that shows the more than 170 possible options you can set.
Given the changes Facebook has made over the past couple of years, what new surprises do the folks there have in store for us? Clearly Facebook feels the power of having such a dominant online community. As they say, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So, yeah, I'm taking a break from Facebook for a while. First, I want to see if it's possible to live without the big FB. Then I'll decide whether it's a good idea to live with it. I already know which way I'm leaning.
Of course, even if I do decide to completely delete my Facebook account, Facebook will keep my personal data and continue to mine it.
I don't expect anyone to follow my lead. I do, however, urge you to think about whether you think Facebook is deserving of our trust. Is Facebook a good steward of our online (and increasingly offline) identities and information?
If Facebook was a person, it would be one who can't keep a secret and talks about you behind your back.
Would you stay friends with a person like that?
Comments
45
Subscribe to commentstyler.mirandaMay 13th 2010 2:32PM
I agree and have done the same. Bye facebook. It was nice when you were still a college-only web application.
FernanthoniesMay 13th 2010 2:36PM
Welcome to the club, I set mine for deletion a little over a week ago.
jokermatt999May 13th 2010 2:51PM
Congrats. More people should delete their accounts (and encourage their friends to do the same) to show Facebook that this just simply isn't acceptable. I doubt that doing anything other than that will have any effect on them whatsoever.
anthony4helpMay 13th 2010 2:45PM
My FB acct has been deleted for some time. It took nothing for me to make that decision not only after the privacy concerns but for just my own sanity. Believe me you can live without it easily. It's been 6 months since I killed mine and I have never looked back.
I will admit I have missed some old friends I reconnected with and didn't think to get contact information for but, we found each other once...
Good luck.
csb1227May 13th 2010 3:04PM
One day ahead of you. I deleted my account yesterday. I'm keeping a close eye on Diaspora.
http://www.joindiaspora.com/
LisaMay 13th 2010 3:29PM
Thanks for this post. I've been considering deactivation for a long time, as Facebook's precipitous erosion of privacy became less and less acceptable to me. This post finally gave me the push I needed to do it and to encourage all of my friends to do the same. I imagine that I'll delete it altogether eventually.
Jonathon HibbardMay 13th 2010 3:53PM
I couldn't agree more with the author of this post. I hate facebook now, and it all started when they decided to "share" my information with the world, WITHOUT my ok.
I may not have anything to hide, but I DO have my identity to hide from the world if I don't want them to know it.
kassie2k4May 13th 2010 4:39PM
i will do the same Poster, I don't use facebook and i hate it, i was begged into making an account which i never use and yet i get random emails all the time because of it, i will deactivate as well, i hate all social networks except for Youtube, which doesn't really count. Twitter is somewhat tollerable, at least they don't demand all your intformation and share it with anyone, and my private account (which again, i rarely use) stays private.
sean beanMay 13th 2010 4:36PM
i've been straddling the fence on deletion of facebook... i was fully set to delete... but i decided to scrape my information out of their archives... i've spent time deleting posts, comments & likes... going back to my initial creation of the account in February 2009...
i had avoided it all of these years... but when we retired and moved 2500 miles away from family and friends in 2008... it seemed like a harmless way to stay in touch...
i only very briefly ever gave it my real name... as i've always been rather proud of my not being able to be found via google... even though i've been online since 1992...
perhaps destroyed now... for this moment... i've deleted my privacy ignorant friends and family...
and i'm still scraping my comments...
we'll see where I decide to go from here...
polaralexMay 14th 2010 6:17AM
I deleted mine 5 days ago.
If anyone knows Greek around here, he could check my post http://foithtips.blogspot.com/2010/05/facebook-post.html about why I did it.
(Summary: Because of losing too much time in small fragments, low level of interestingness and privacy issues.)
LanoozMay 14th 2010 6:15AM
It made me think. I wouldn't like this person for sure. But Facebook is a kind of a popular guy with whom everyone are playing with. Everyone is around him so well, usually if you want to be accepted in the society, be cool you pretend to be friend with him. It's kinda naturally, unfortunately.
Hany HannaMay 13th 2010 7:21PM
Good for you! All these people who've been sharing their lives online are in for a real awakening...
http://www.5min.com/Video/Facebook-What-They-Really-Have-On-You-6650212
It's so insane...even if it was safe who has time to maintain their virtual life online and keep up with their friends virtual life? Come on people...get real lives!
StuMay 13th 2010 7:43PM
After having a FB account since Beta, I decided to leave in september and it was great, altho if I was doing it again I'd make sure everyone I wanted to stay in contact with had my contact detail and I had theres. So far though not missed it, join the intelligent masses and delete that bad boy
NeoprimalMay 13th 2010 8:12PM
I agree with your decision in doing it for yourself. I personally don't see the big deal with Facebook. No matter what any website CLAIMS, I assume 100% of the time that anything I submit MAY be passed on direct or indirectly to another place.
That being said, I'm not sure what info. posted on Facebook isn't pretty much available on things like your ID, or asked for by stores or member cards, etc....are you going to stop getting store/member cards or tell the Gov't you'd rather not give your info to the DMV etc?
Granted, not EVERYONE can see this information...but not EVERYONE on FB can see your information either unless you set it up that way. This is no defense for FB of course, all I'm saying is that I think we're incredibly naive to think our info isn't floating around out there, and that once it's there it's there even if we delete/deactivate it etc.
Do I like that facebook is selling our 'likes' etc, I don't care. Am I worried that my identity will be 'stolen'? Hell yeah, I shop in America don't I? I have a JC Penny member card, blockbuster, winn dixie, so yeah....I worry. I worry everyday so I check on it.
In this day and age where information is exchanged like phone numbers - it's not worth it to shut yourself off out of fear for these sort of things. It would mean not getting 'bonus' cards for stores or member cards for savings or for some places, even being able to join them. So the best thing to do, is to be responsible and protect yourself in any way you can. That doesn't mean you want to go out giving out your SS#. Just means knowing who and how this place will use the info. and where exactly it's going.
Now, if you're making some kind of political statement or want to jump on some anti-facebook bandwagon, for whatever reason. Then power to you.
the pl4gueMay 13th 2010 8:35PM
This is the first time I've ever agreed on something with Jason here. He did something smart. Woot!!
Way to go, dude. Hopefully more people will follow suit and deactivate their accounts. Or man up and DELETE them (http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account)
the pl4gueMay 13th 2010 8:37PM
I just found out that now when you delete your Facebook account, they KEEP your personal information.
Thank God I deleted my account back in january or february (I forget).
NeoprimalMay 14th 2010 9:35AM
That's why you do it the smart way....
You change all of the information to something like "the" or anything and go about meticulously removing whatever can be removed like age, address, etc, THEN delete. Mind you, make sure you know it's a forever thing, lest you have to go back in and change it all again.
I would also leave a note saying you're deleting and then un-friend everyone, that way they can't 'mine' or connect you to anyone else.
And for the record, most if not all websites you ever register to/on, keep your information even after you're gone for whatever their reasons. Some purge them eventually, but many keep it. That fact is very vague in privacy policies because they all focus on selling or sharing your info.
It's magnified for Fb because their privacy policy has been put through an atom viewer, and also they try to be as transparent as possible.
As I mentioned, I'm not defending Fb but this is turning out to be a witch hunt.
danMay 14th 2010 4:38PM
How, exactly, is “switching your interests to keyword links that you have to individually opt out of” a “completely transparent user-hostile move”!?
You entered those interests. Now people can click on them. WTF is the problem?
TheByrusMay 13th 2010 10:46PM
Just put in to delete my account 2 minutes ago.
JaymoonMay 13th 2010 10:51PM
If you don't like what's on Facebook about you, you only have yourself to blame.