[LINK] Media Republish Facebook Announcement

[Roger Clarke]

[I don't make a habit of reading this kind of stuff, but the first 
round of media reporting about Facebook's latest changes is 
remarkably sycophantic and unquestioning.  The initial Register and 
ArsTechnica reports are as bad as the Computerworld article below.

[1.  Facebook has now, finally, discovered that people's friends, 
rather than being one big pool, naturally happen in groups?? 
Zuckerberg and his staff really *do* need psycho-social counselling, 
if that's the kind of thing they didn't know already.

[2.  Despite being presented as though the initiative is 
privacy-related, the change seems to be essentially a functional 
feature.

[3.  As far as I can see, the many privacy problems at Facebook 
remain as they were after the last round of changes.


Facebook takes on privacy with new tools
Will users be quick to forgive and forget when it comes to privacy?
By Sharon Gaudin
October 7, 2010 03:22 PM ET
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9189981/Facebook_takes_on_privacy_with_new_tools?taxonomyId=17

Computerworld - After taking a beating from users over privacy issues 
this year, Facebook got the message and gave users more control over 
their information.

On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced several new 
tools for the social networking site, including one designed to 
enable users to download any of their information from the site. 
Another new tool is a dashboard that allows users to monitor what 
applications they've used on Facebook and delete them more easily.

The new feature that's received the most attention is Facebook 
Groups, which lets users break up their friends into subgroups. For 
example, an employee who might not want his boss to see an update 
about a job interview can make that post available for only a few 
online friends to see.

Industry analysts note that behind these additions to the popular 
social site are its users' festering frustrations over Facebook's 
privacy, or lack of it.

"Facebook has shown that they've heard the message on privacy and 
user control," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting 
Group. "These new features, along with the privacy control revamp 
earlier this year, finally give users the ability to fine tune what 
people on their list can and can't see. With the Groups feature, 
Facebook is giving users a much more granular way to set access 
parameters and to separate their family and close friends from mere 
acquaintances."

Olds isn't alone in thinking that Facebook is working to quell some 
of its ongoing privacy issues.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an online commentary, noted 
that Facebook is moving closer to satisfying the organization's Bill 
of Privacy Rights for Social Networking.

"While EFF continues to have outstanding issues with Facebook, we 
greatly appreciate these important steps toward giving Facebook users 
more transparency and control when it comes to how the information 
they post to Facebook is shared, and more power to take their 
Facebook data with them if they ever choose to leave the service," 
wrote Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney for the foundation.

Opsahl added, however, that the foundation is looking for more 
privacy changes from Facebook, including more granular application 
controls, as well as changes to the Groups feature.

Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group, noted that Facebook 
made some tactical privacy moves this week, but changing people's 
perceptions of the site's level of privacy may take a while.

"It may make new users and existing users more willing to invest time 
but, trust, or the lack of it, will trump this effort," Enderle said.

"I think [Facebook] understands there is a problem. Like most 
engineering companies, they seem to think that it mostly has to do 
with technology and don't yet get that it has more to do with how 
people perceive them."

Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner, said privacy issues aren't 
likely to go away for any social networking site because everyone has 
different privacy expectations. While users have voiced their 
frustrations with Facebook's privacy controls, few of the site's more 
than 500 million users have left the site because of it.

"Overall, I think Facebook has weathered the storm of privacy 
concerns, as indicated by continued robust growth," Valdes said.

"Privacy issues will never go away ... Facebook will continue to walk 
this tightrope, and, while it has teetered on occasion, it continues 
to regain its balance and move forward."


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			            
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University