There’s been a lot of talk this week about Facebook’s new Open Graph platform and its “connections” feature and what all that means to users’ privacy, and I even considered writing up a blog post about it. But I just couldn’t. I tried, though. Twice. But I realized that honestly I just don’t care.
Is Facebook really “positioning itself to become deeply embedded in almost every single website”? Will your privacy truly be “crushed with impunity”? Has Facebook “removed its users’ ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information”?
Or is everyone overreacting?
Listen, I get it. Facebook doesn’t really care about your privacy; they’ve proven that much. But at the same time, what they’re doing isn’t that different than what Google, Twitter, and a host of other companies do. So if you’re really that upset that the photos you posted of your kids are now viewable to the entire Internet or that everyone now knows what college you went to or the fact you “like” Lady Gaga (which really, you should just keep to yourself), then maybe the best thing to do would be to remove said content from the site so it’s no longer an issue. Or don’t put it up there to begin with.
In the meantime, Facebook, like any other Internet-based company whose revenue depends solely on advertising, will be using every available opportunity to increase its bottom line and fulfill its “manifest destiny”.
Is that news? I guess. Do I care? Not in the least.
Previously:
Why I closed my Facebook account
How exactly is Facebook connect good for users?
