Since its launch seven years ago, Facebook has consistently updated its website and implemented new features. Each time, users drag their feet and grudgingly accept the changes but they don’t delete their accounts.
Last Wednesday, a good portion of Facebook’s approximately 750 million users posted statuses detailing their chagrin about the latest changes to the social network’s layout. Most of these posts were complaints about the appearance of the new layout or the increased difficulty in navigating their profile, but many people are unconcerned about the larger issue at hand – privacy.
As part of the new changes to Facebook, third-party applications will be incorporated into each user’s personal profile. Instead of manually clicking the mouse to allow updates from apps to be shared with friends, the information will routinely be added to someone’s profile each time they use the app with a single permission agreement. Users will need to be more conscientious about their activities because information concerning their private use of the media, exercise schedules and other personal routines will automatically be published on their Facebook walls.
Along with the integration of third-party applications, Facebook also introduced the Timeline. The Timeline will take information from people’s personal profiles, such as status updates, tagged photos and events, and meld these components into a chronological “story” of that person’s life. The Timeline will essentially be a history of your life documented through online activity, shared on your profile.
Although these changes are the most invasive into users’ personal lives, “Top Stories” and the “Ticker” are what Facebook users are all riled up about.
Right above the news feed, an algorithm takes into consideration the friends you interact with most and which posts have the most comments and “likes” on them and compiles those posts into your “Top Stories.” The Ticker is a constant stream of friends’ activities located in the upper right corner of your homepage that looks similar to a Twitter feed. Facebook users are complaining that the stories they are most interested in are not those in Top Stories and that the Ticker is distracting.
If history repeats itself, annoyance at the new Facebook will fade and users will continue to post trivial updates about their lives until the next change comes along and disrupts their content. They will continue to post personal details with no regard to the lack of privacy on the Internet and won’t think twice about using features like the Timeline or third-party apps to make their life that much more accessible to the world.
The bottom line is that Facebook is a free service, and the users are not paying customers. Mark Zuckerberg and his co-workers have no obligation toward users and can use the information they willingly provide to cater toward advertisements and other services they think people are interested in. Facebook’s main priority isn’t to help you creep on your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, tag yourself in pictures at parties or be a distraction from homework.
Remember to respect yourself and your right to privacy before you post your next status update.