Is Facebook Privacy an Oxymoron?
Concerns about Facebook privacy are in the news again. It seems that they have once again expanded the options for what parts of your Facebook account you want to expose and to whom you want them to be exposed. For most, having options is a good think but at issue is Facebook reverting to a default mode after each redesign that is optimized not for privacy rather for Facebook's bottom line. The easy fix is for individuals to review these settings and set them to that which they are most comfortable OR take the approach that I spoke about recently on the "Lawyer On The Line" TV show and treat everything you post to Facebook like any other public venue where any conversation could easily be overheard by another party near by.
By the very nature of what Facebook does, privacy will continue to be a challenge. While many despise Facebook's recent moves regarding privacy concerns, we all need to step back for a moment. We need to realize that Facebook is a business and part of their business model is taking the private information that we provide of our own free will and return behaviorally and contextually ads that are much more relevant than the banner ads served by other websites. In the end this is a win for BOTH advertiser and consumer.