Who’s Really Responsible For Your Privacy On Facebook?

Note: Although I typically offer guides, case studies and tool reviews as related to social media I felt it necessary to provide my opinion on the Facebook privacy debate. Let me know in the comments if you want to see more opinions such as this one or if you prefer only seeing guides, how-to’s, case studies and other similar content on the site.

When it comes to online privacy Facebook is clearly standing in the middle as everyone appears to be readying the pitchforks in preparation for an assault on the social networking giant. Everyone from techno celebrities such as Leo Laporte and Jason Calacanis to Google spam cop Matt Cutts have threatened to deactivate or have deleted their Facebook accounts due to privacy concerns.

But is all of this hatred and torch waving directed at the Facebook monster regarding its privacy policies completely warranted? Taking what is certain to be an unpopular view I don’t think it is justified and a lot of it ends up being the herd mentality as users want to do what is popular, to be part of the in crowd and right now what is popular is hurling insults at Facebook.

In response to all of the finger wagging and tongue lashes Facebook has received from the media and blogosphere they have responded and according to a Mashable article published today Facebook will be rolling out new and simplified privacy controls starting on May 26, 2010.

The announcement of new simplified privacy controls scares me as simplified usually means dumbed down or lacking in features and the current privacy controls offered by Facebook aren’t the problem as they allow for granular control of who sees the content you share. Instead, I believe that one of the problems lies with the users and fact that many believe that Facebook should be the nanny that protects and keeps them safe when in actuality it should be up to the user to read and learn about the controls that will in fact be protecting their privacy.

The second problem I see in regards to privacy is that Facebook is no longer used in the way it was initially built for and the term friend no longer means what it once did. Originally Facebook was built as a platform that enabled college and university students to connect and network with their actual friends and acquaintances they had met in real life so your actual friends list would probably not have exceeded a couple of hundred people. While today’s version of Facebook is much different than what it once was with the term friend now meaning you’ve accepted an invite from anyone who contacted you and friend numbers have ballooned into the thousands. This new definition of friends means that you may now be sharing intimate and private details with complete strangers instead of with just your actual friends and families.

Again, this is not Facebook’s fault as users are free to friend who they want and if that includes accepting friend requests from strangers then it should be up to the individual to understand how the privacy controls work in order to protect their own privacy.

So as not to place the blame solely on the Facebook users there are numerous things Facebook could have done to prevent the current privacy complaints that have been plaguing the company. The first thing the company could have done was to communicate any and all privacy changes with their users more effectively to ensure that the users understand what the changes meant. Facebook has addressed part of this problem with the launch of the Facebook privacy guide.

The second thing that Facebook could have done in order to prevent this controversy is to make their new social graph and social plugin suites opt-in instead of the opt-out that they currently are set to. Although the initial adoption of the social graph may have started slow because of the opt-in policy once users were aware of the changes and why they are good for them would have flocked to turn the social graph on in order to fully realize the personalized experience crafted on the web with the use of the social plugins.

Although in no way innocent Facebook shouldn’t be the sole entity feeling the wrath during these early days of online privacy and instead users need to look to themselves and realize that they are the ones that are ultimately in charge of their own privacy while online.

So what do you think about the Facebook privacy debate currently raging online? Who do you think is to blame? And who should be responsible for privacy online the company or the individual? Give your opinion in the comments below.