The Great Privacy Debate

As you’ve probably heard, F*cebook has been on the defensive lately. After making their privacy controls a bit too complicated, they were given major heat over their policies and the security of the website. In return, many people decided to “protest” by deleting their accounts.

I strongly considered deleting my account, but first spent about 20 minutes making my way through the privacy controls to make sure that everything was set to “friends only.” Since I can control my friends, I can in turn control who sees my information. I then began whittling away at my list of so-called “friends” – I had over 1,000 – but realistically, I am not too good to admit that I do NOT have 1,000 friends. I’d probably be lucky to have 100!

As I began the SLOW, tedious process of deleting people who, at one point or another, I had approved as a “friend” – I began to wonder if it would be easier to just delete the account. But then I’d come across a person – a real-life friend – who I felt lucky to be able to keep up with on F*cebook, whether because of distance, time, or other reasons. So I decided to keep plugging along at deleting “friends.” This is probably one major area where the site can improve – it is unbelievably difficult to just plug along at deleting friends. You have to go to their own page, scroll to the bottom, and click “remove from friends.” Then you are right back where you started.

Supposedly, F*cebook is going to begin fixing their crazy privacy settings. What do you think? Is Mark Z. doing enough? Will the site always be successful, regardless of privacy issues, just because of its nature? Will you be deleting your account, keeping it active, or setting up a new account?