Facebook Fail

Everyone's been talking about Facebook's new privacy changes that rolled out this past week. And I can see why: they are a joke. They really should have used the word 'public' changes instead of 'privacy' because if anything privacy was revoked.

The first thing that bothers me is how sneaky Facebook has been about the whole thing. First of all when the little box comes up introducing the changes, they let you make the switch to allowing "everyone" to see it or to "Keep old settings." Except you're not keeping your old settings at all! At first glance if you selected old settings you would think your profile would remain exactly the same? False. Your friends are visible, your profile picture and profile picture album is visible, etc.

Another sneaky thing? When you go to the privacy settings tab, you have the option to set individual preferences for your photo albums. But even if you select 'Only Friends', they will still be visible. You have to go under the Applications Settings tab and edit the settings for the Photos application to 'Only Friends'. This still doesn't solve the problem of having your profile picture be public. I'm not sure how some people have theirs blocked out; I'm guessing they just didn't make the changes yet? Anyone know?

Facebook needs a quick fix, or I think they could actually lose users over this. Privacy is a serious thing. Facebook is NOT Twitter. It is not going to be - nor should it be. It's a different tool, and that's a GOOD thing. Facebook is for connecting with friends - of your choosing - and sharing that way. It just feels like Facebook is forcing everyone to like each other. Sorry - it's just not going to happen. Users don't always want co-workers, bosses, potential employers - or even people they just do not like - to see their profile pictures or friends lists or anything about them.

Get it together F'book.