As much as I dislike Facebook's privacy policy, they may be one of the few companies being realistic about it (though they need better PR about it).

Oh, I disagree. It's one thing to say "your information is out there" and another to say "Since your information is out there anyway, we're just going to opt you in to CHANGING ALL OF YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS TO COMPLETELY PUBLIC WITHOUT TELLING YOU FIRST, mkay?"

If they'd leave current users' settings alone every time they changed the defaults, that would be one thing. But it's completely unacceptable to take something I've explicity said should be private and make it public without asking first.

[There's also information on Facebook that's not publically available anywhere else, and that people might reasonably want to keep between themselves and a select group of friends. I might want "BDSM" in my list of Likes that I show to my explicitly approved Friends, but not publically searchable by, say, my boss. And the way Facebook operates, even if that level of privacy is an option today, there's no guarantee that they're not going to make it public by default without notification next week. NOT COOL.]

It's you're evil overlord brain wanting to know how to twist this technology to your own nefarious ends.

Is that so wrong?

Is that so wrong?

Honestly, we expect no less of you.

You CAN'T protect your information online. You. Can't. The best approach is to stop worrying about it.

The best approach? Really?

I agree with you on all that, Jess. I think Facebook is in a lot of trouble. They've taken completely the wrong approach and attitude to it all, and it may just sink them. Because of exactly what you describe above.

If they just said "None of your stuff is really private," and took a legitimate stand from that side, that would be one thing, but they're super slimy and mercenary about it instead. And as you so rightly point out, keep opting you back into everything every time they make a change. Plus the whole granularity of it all, where you have to individually disable every little thing, one at a time (and have to click thirty-seven buttons each time).

The best approach? Really?

Got a better suggestion, bon? An advanced cyberwarfare team for every person who uses the internet is unfeasible.

Plus the whole granularity of it all, where you have to individually disable every little thing, one at a time (and have to click thirty-seven buttons each time).

And no "uncheck all" button so you can start from a completely locked-down profile and work your way out. I can't tell if it's deliberately confusing or if they just can't afford a usability consultant.

An advanced cyberwarfare team for every person who uses the internet is unfeasible.

Dood. Why you gotta be a hater?

I can't tell if it's deliberately confusing or if they just can't afford a usability consultant.

I'm pretty sure it's deliberate.

The reason that Facebook succeeded in the first place was that they made it a lot easier to control your privacy than MySpace, Friendster, et. al.

Now that they got big enough that those other sites don't matter, they did a 180°.