Facebook is at it again. It's changing things around, and a few people are noticing. I've been thinking about this post for a long time. Facebook is a very popular service, and privacy is a hot topic (especially for many librarians I know), it's bound to strike several different chords. I've heard Facebook criticized as being both too constricting (aka the "walled garden") and too open with our information. After mulling about this post for a while (maybe even since Facebook has been around), I've decided that the problem is not necessarily with Facebook, it's with us, and our lack of understanding of a service we invest so much time and throw so much information into.
When I started writing this I decided what I did not want it to be was a "why and how we need to turn off all privacy settings in Facebook" sort of thing. I am not advocating that. Facebook is here to stay, like it or not. What I think the essence of Facebook is illustrating to us, though, is where I've felt this privacy discussion has been heading for a long while... whose responsibility is it to protect our own privacy? It is ours. I may not agree to all the options in Facebook's convoluted privacy settings, but it's because I took the time to understand them that I feel better about what the world sees of me through Facebook. So what this is instead, is an approach to taking back what is yours, and to understanding what part of your soul Facebook actually owns (it might not as bad as you think.)
