How Privacy Blowbacks For Facebook Could Light A Long Burning Fuse

It’s that time of year again. The semi-annual privacy policy changes at Facebook. Yes, it was only a few months ago that Anastasia broke down what previous changes meant for teens and took the opportunity to call for more education around reputation management, but with the latest policy stirring up a renewed heated debate around public content, here we are again.

The most recent privacy pullback and the subsequent press push back are explained nicely over on Gawker’s tech blog Valleywag, but basically the gist of the policy is that the social network is “pushing users hard to share their personal content [i.e., friends list, profile pictures, fan pages and network memberships] with strangers. Users are being forced to update their privacy settings, with most default choices set to “Everyone” in the world or “friends of friends.”’ In other words, users are put in the position to change back settings.

Admittedly before reading this piece, I’d hit the “skip for now” button on both the Open Letter from Mark Zuckerberg and the dialog box with the “Privacy Announcement.” I had messages to return, friend requests to accept and, like I’ve mentioned here before, less social interest in Facebook than ever before. But now that it got my attention and the bad buzz that’s been floating around care of friends and the press has registered, when I did click through to return my settings to the way they were, I did so will a roll of my eyes and a chip on my shoulder. Not to mention a renewed appreciation for the relatively simple privacy settings I deal with on Twitter.

I share this personal anecdote to illustrate what may ultimately happen with teens and Facebook if the introduction of change continues to feel insidious and the general negative talk around the site as distrustful and opportunistic, building ever since the Beacon episode, doesn’t stop.  Even if there is no short term response bigger than a Facebook group, I can see this awareness of suspicion and doubletalk coming back to haunt the site with young users. Right now it may only be white noise but, my sense is that at a certain volume negativity seeps in. And not just for the privacy issues, but for the corporate style with which it’s being handled (i.e., Open Letters, etc), which seems more directed at the new older half of its user base.

While I appreciate the ongoing commitment the site has demonstrated towards enforcing safety for minors, both with the privacy policy that determines “Everyone,” as “friends, friends of friends, and people in any school or work networks they have joined,” no public search listings and most recently and notably the formation of a Safety Advisory Board comprised of five leading Internet safety organizations, it seems like there could be more of a directed effort by Facebook to address the 18 year-old prospective college students and other young adults who will be affected by these setting changes.

My hope is that the Safety Advisory Board within Facebook along with other advocates in the space will bring about some cool, engaging material on reputation management for teens and young adults that will raise awareness. Regardless of settings, the key message to teens and young adults, as always, should be to always be conscious.  But even the best designed safety education materials won’t do much good for Facebook down the line (and by no means, do I see the repercussions happening overnight), if the site continues to let its bottom line show (cynical teens and college students will detect what feels self-serving) and intrude on the user experience with updates and changes that seem neither transparent nor valuable.

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