Facebook & its ALWAYS Changing Privacy Settings

So, I’ve been meaning to write something here for a long, LONG while. And today, I finally got some great inspiration for me to break my own EComm blogging ice.

Everyone that knows me know that I am an avid Facebook fan. Back in 2006, I had a broken computer and I used Facebook as my hard drive to save all of the pictures I had in that computer. Since then, more than 200 albums have been created, 3000+ photo tags, and 6000+ pictures have been uploaded, becoming my friends scrapbook-making a lot simpler.

That was 4 years ago, and since then Facebook has changed, obviously. But what has changed the most (other than the grandmas that want baby pictures creating accounts) is the privacy settings. I am (or was since Fan Pages are now likes) a fan of Facebook Bill of Rights and I am always on the look of new privacy settings  and new rules they invent to let marketers know a little more about us – because those happy birthday ads on my birthday were not a coincidence.

But today, when I logged to Facebook a lot of my friends had this as their status:

FACEBOOK is at it again…violating your personal information: As of today, there is a new privacy setting called “Instant Personalization” that shares data with non-facebook websites and it is automatically set to “Allow.” Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and uncheck “Allow”. Please copy & repost!

But what is “Instant Personalization”? This is a copy of what it says:

Instant Personalization helps you connect more easily with your friends on select partner sites.

You’ll find a personal and social experience the moment you arrive on our select partner sites — Docs.com, Pandora, and Yelp. We’re working closely with these partners so you can quickly connect with your friends and see relevant content on their sites. These sites personalize your experience using your public Facebook information.

When you arrive on these sites, you’ll see a notification from Facebook at the top of the page.

You can easily opt-out of experiencing this on these sites by “No Thanks” on the blue Facebook notification on the top of partner sites.

Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites.

Please keep in mind that if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application.

Well, thank you Facebook! I am pretty bothered by the ‘if friends use this partner sites (or third parties) can still access to your information’. But why? It’s not my fault that my friends like to take care of their farms on Farmville, or that they take EVERY quiz imaginable! Why should I be penalized by my friends’ lack of things to do during the day?

This made me go a little further and the New York Times published this yesterday. The first sentence gave me reasons to laugh: “founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company was removing restrictions on user data retention within Facebook applications.” Sure, for the people who create applications this is great news, but not us!

And that same article recommends you to remove some of the Applications you now don’t use, or that you’ve authorized without knowing. I also always block applications my friends use because I don’t care Which Disney Princess are you or When Will you get Married. Hey, every little bit helps.