The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook

The article that I just read called “The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook” shows how the privacy settings on facebook have evolved during the past 5 years and have made user accounts less private. The article provides the data on the amount of privacy that has increased through an interactive chart that has 5 tabs of the different years from 2005-2010. The article does not attack facebook nor does it provide the solution of closing one’s facebook account, rather it sends the message to those who are unaware of the settings they should adjust in order to keep their information as private as they want. The article first introduced the types of data that facebook provides about their users. These pieces of information include the users’ interests, gender, birthplace, birthday, current location, current occupation, current networks, and even religious and political views. The obvious information facebook provides are photos and wall posts. It also shows how the audiences that want to see the information of the users get the information. It is usually through mutual friends or networks.

The privacy has definitely decreased in the span of 5 years and this has definitely affected users. Personally, the lack of complete privacy in my account allows people whom I really don’t want viewing my information to view my information. Sometimes it even causes me problems. I have relatives outside the country who always complain because my family rarely ever visits them. They check my facebook to see where we go instead of visiting them and they confront us.  This causes a problem and the location feature of facebook accounts causes it. For other users, it could cause bigger problems. People can track other people through the information facebook provides. Someone whom one does not really trust could find out things about a person without that person even noticing. This could be very frustrating.

I personally use facebook daily. I really enjoy it and I find it the best way to communicate with my friends that have moved out. Without facebook, I would be completely detached from my friends who do no live here anymore and I really enjoy staying in touch with them. The privacy settings do concern me but I would not go out and make all my information private. I would make some changes now that I read this article but I wouldn’t ever delete my account. I did not have major privacy problems with facebook. The worst thing that’s ever happened is that I had people I do not know inboxing me and asking to get to know me. That isn’t a big problem because I simply just ignored them and I was not harmed at all. I do not find facebook extremely dangerous, but I worry about being hacked because this year more than 50 of my friends were hacked. I would not like someone to be in control of my account and do not want someone else to steal my identity and pretend to be me for even one minute.