ReadWriteWeb: Facebook Offers Mobile Privacy Settings 6. August 2010
Posted by Gerhard W. Loub in Facebook, Mobile, Privacy, Social Networks.Tags: Facebook, Mobile, Privacy
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Up until now, if you were out and about and want to share something on Facebook, it would automatically be posted with your default privacy settings. If that meant all your friends, then it included your mother, grandmother and your boss too.
In response to the user demand, Facebook has now added privacy controls to its mobile website, bringing users the ability to control what they share from whatever device they chose, wherever they are.
Facebook soft-relaunches privacy policy 26. May 2010
Posted by Gerhard W. Loub in Advertising, Facebook, Privacy, Social Networks.Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Mashable, Privacy, Readwriteweb
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Of course it´s a fortunate coincidence that Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg announces the new privacy policy just the day before the congressional briefing on Facebook privacy. And of course he remains the smart, young guy, who didn´t want to do anything evil, when he started sharing his customers´ data with third parties without any further permission of his customers. So he writes in his blog:
On a personal note, I just turned 26 years old a few days ago. I started Facebook when I was 19 and it’s amazing to look back at how it has evolved. There have been a lot of changes over the years as we’ve continued to innovate, and I appreciate that you have all stuck with us. Each time we make a change we try to learn from past lessons, and each time we make new mistakes too. We are far from perfect, but we always try our hardest to build the best service for you and for the world. So I just want to say thanks.
Smart, isn´t he, building the best service for You and the whole world?
The new privacy policy is of course a soft-relaunche with a little bit more control-possibility for the customers. But it´s not clear, whether it´s a true, honest change of Zuckerbergs´s opinion of “Privacy 2.0″.
The most important changes:
- Less information must be visible to everyone.
- Friends and Pages must not be visible to everyone.
- The “connections privacy model” is removed.
- Application´s access to user-informations can be turned off (but then it won´t be possible to play e.g. Facebook-Games or use any Facebook-Application).
- Partner sites can only see informations visible to everyone.
- Instant personalization can be turned off completely.
These changes will be rolled out over the next few weeks.
It´s not clear, what these changes will mean for Facebook´s customers and Facebook´s value for ad companies. Will users start hiding all their relevant data, so that it will be difficult to build someone´s own network? Will many users start turning off personalization, so that Facebook´s value for ad companies drops dramatically? Or will Facebook change his privacy back again during the next few months? One of the most critical moments in Facebook´s history is on the way.
Further information:
USA: Congressional Briefing on Facebook Privacy 26. May 2010
Posted by Gerhard W. Loub in Facebook, Privacy, Social Networks.Tags: congress, democracy, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Politics, USA
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While Europe is just watching all the troubles around Facebook´s strange privacy policy, US politicians will discuss the topic in congress. But will a small number of politicians really succeed against the Zuckerberg´s big lobby?
Most Facebook users have no idea that the social network giant has a D.C. office full of lobbyists and policy wonks. But that office will be staging a Congress staffers-only briefing this week to address issues of — you guessed it — user privacy.
via Mashable: Facebook Heads to D.C. for Congressional Briefing on Privacy.
