The privacy problem with Facebook

Friday, May 21st, 2010 by TBD

With the media picking up on a supposed exodus from Facebook on 30 May it might be timely to look at core of the problem. French graphic designer Florent Guerlain has attempted to visualise the process currently required to manage your privacy settings in Facebook. It gives you a clear impression that it ain’t as easy as it should be.

Matt McKeon, a developer working  with the Visual Communication Lab at IBM Research, has also mapped the creep in the availability of your personal information for people outside your accepted friends. Click on the visual below to access an interactive version that will take you through the creep from 2005 until now.

In spite of this, will there really be an exodus of people from Facebook. I don’t think so. However, as the novelty is now wearing off for a lot of people who joined the ‘phenomenon’ at the peak of the wave, we will probably see some natural reduction in the amount of activity from friends. But that would be more about not updating their status than actually leaving Facebook.

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