Now that the dust has settled and Facebook’s agreement with the Federal Trade Commission is clear, it’s time to assess the damage. What’s that you say? You don’t think there’ll be damage from an agreement that ostensibly promises two-decades’-worth of governmental privacy policy oversight for the world’s largest social network? Sorry, but I have to disagree.
Perhaps Facebook deserves this. It and CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s privacy track record is spotty at best. The still-young CEO admitted as much in his long post-settlement statement, writing Facebook has “made a bunch of mistakes” in the privacy realm. Zuckerberg, though, also pointed out that Facebook had addressed most, if not all, of these mistakes prior to the FTC agreement and approaches product and privacy differently than it did before. He even listed 20 new privacy tools delivered in 18 months. Among them:
- The ability to set which audience will see each post
- Inline post-level privacy control
- Groups
- The Apps dashboard and Apps permission dialogue
I would agree that many of these changes have made Facebook a more private world. On the other hand, these very same changes often make the once familiar Facebook virtually unusable for everyday users (the “who moved my furniture?” syndrome).
The other issue is that many Facebook users still do not apply Facebook’s voluminous privacy settings. As a result, they’re often shocked at what has been shared beyond their relatively closed circles. For those who, like me, have enabled Facebook’s Timeline, the most surprising thing about it is exactly what Facebook is able to pull together and then display.
Most of this falls into the realm of annoyance. But to look at what the FTC has just pushed Zuckerberg and Facebook into, you’d think every one of Facebook’s 800 million users were encountering terrible privacy-related incidents every single moment.
Regular privacy audits by the U.S. government will likely be unpleasant for Zuckerberg and Co., but the internal changes could be just as damaging. Not only will Facebook institute its own biannual privacy audit, but now there will be two layers of privacy oversight within the company.
Chief Privacy Officer, Policy, Erin Egan should be a bit more outward facing, as she talks to government agencies and privacy groups. Still, that feedback loop will go right back into Facebook’s product pipeline. Likewise Michael Richter, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, will join the product group to “to expand, improve and formalize our existing program of internal privacy review.” That’s more product feedback. More importantly, Richter is a lawyer. Have you ever handed a lawyer a contract? They pore over every single word and always err on the side of caution. Now imagine Richter doing the same thing with product development.
Facebook is, on its own, and thanks to the FTC, adding layer upon layer of oversight. The only logical outcome from this is fewer products and less innovation. That’s right; flashes of brilliance like Timeline could be few and far between as they get stuck in continual privacy review loops. Eagan, Richter and the FTC could all err on the side of caution, which essentially means steering the Facebook bus over to the shoulder and not driving at all.
This is your fault. Well, not yours exactly, but every single person who complained about privacy breaches as if someone was stealing their baby. You joined Facebook by the millions (along with a number of other prominent social networks) and have fully embraced all that they give you: new connections, more consistent interaction with close and distant relatives, discovery, entertainment and games, and a way to see your life as never before (you really need to check out Timeline). Yet, for every Facebook privacy misstep you sought to take Facebook and Zuckerberg to the woodshed.
Now, to be fair, those privacy breaches, though never malicious, usually had to do with Facebook looking for ways to monetize all that network activity. When people make mistakes based on profits, people get nervous and figure that the business does not have their best interest at heart. That’s likely true. I believe that Zuckerberg wants people to get the fullest and best Facebook experience, but he is well aware that it’s a business with huge infrastructure and operational costs. If Facebook is not a successful business, it eventually will no longer be a viable social network platform for the masses. In other words, business — making money — is a necessary evil here.
Mistakes made in the name of money-making strategies should be corrected, but why all the punishment? We often talk about the need for innovation and jobs in the U.S., but when a company aggressively pursues both, we often recoil in horror.
It’s hard to assess what the post-FTC agreement Facebook will look like. It will likely still innovate and grow, but will now operate with a degree of caution that will surely slow it down. No, the Facebook bus is not parked, but it may be traveling well below the speed limit—and you have only the FTC and yourselves to blame.
Privacy Controls: Profile Editing
You can edit the visibility of individual parts of your profiles right from the profile editing page. In the past, this had to be done from the Privacy Settings page.
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