Privacy is old news. Publicity is the new norm says Facebook

Just recently (Jan.8,2010) one of Facebook's founders Mark Zuckerberg came out with a statement essentially saying that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private, meaning the emphasis would be on publicity and not on privacy. This is a very significant statement because as you might not know yet, Facebook is the world's largest social network with over 350 million users worldwide but even discounting that astronomical figure, you and I can both agree (judging from previous entries in this blog site) that Facebook has had a very real impact in our daily lives. It is not some passing fancy, in fact, to me, it has ceased to be a social networking site in the truest sense of the term.

In support of his bold statement, Zuckerberg offered this as his reason: "And in the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information.(referring to Twitter). People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time. We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are."

I came across an article asking this question: Isn't Facebook itself acting as the catalyst of this social shift rather than it merely reflecting a changing social norm? Consider these figures for a moment: number of Facebook users: over 350 million (increasing every second) World population: 6,797,835,938 as of today and likewise increasing every second. Now, ask yourself again. The numbers would seem to support the view that Facebook is the very agent of this social change it claims to merely adapt to.

Facebook made changes to its privacy controls last year to the effect that it provided for a "live feed" where one can get updates on just about anything another person does with his/her account from the pictures he/she posted up to the games he/she played and to the online quizzes he/she answered (but this is of course with that particular user's consent). It also made changes to reflect the view of publicity as the rule and privacy the exception, such as in posting pictures, where the default is that everyone can see it as opposed to before where only you and your friends can see it. Thus, if one is not vigilant in making the necessary changes to save the last vestiges of one's online privacy, some very private information will be out there for all the world to see (yes, including your parents). Both of these changes, however, seem miniscule (though nonetheless important) when compared to the change allowing one's Facebook profile to show as a google search result or site match. Google is THE search engine in the world and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE uses it. See, Facebook has gradually been creeping deeper and deeper into our private lives allegedly to indicate the norms of the times, yet we don't realize it because it has so entrenched itself with our day to day living to the point that it seems perfectly normal. or okay. Again, was it not Facebook itself which began this process of change by implementing these subtle tweaks and forced publicity upon us users? You decide.

References:
www.census.gov
Webtechlaw.com
Read Write Web

Entry No.8