Comments on: ‘Sharing is Not an Inherently Private Activity’. Really. Really??!

By: trafficsoar

trafficsoar — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:57:20 +0000

I was just telling someone today how much I despise the constant changes/intrusions/mistakes of Facebook. I believe they are tone-deaf jerks.

By: Jen McGahan

Jen McGahan — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:48:01 +0000

Andrew, your phrase “Facebook kids” is chilling. Privacy is not an outdated concept and we should defend it dearly. As a mom, I’m forever telling my kids to remember how their online presence reflects their character, for obvious reasons. However I do realize there will be slip-ups, and times when we would wish to “take it back,” which actually is becoming an outdated concept. We certainly don’t need websites that we contract with to sabotage our intentions and our web persona with their devil-may-care attitudes about sharing. My projected fear is that these breaches of trust between social sites and their users will “require” an outside third party (the State) to step in and “help” us to regulate ourselves, within social networks and everywhere else on the Internet. Freedom’s other cheek is responsibility (for both users and website developers); as soon as some Federal agency decides that an opinion is wrong and shared too freely, it could simply disappear from view, or be prosecuted. Citizens who care about preserving their rights must continue this dialogue in public and at home. Thank you for this post.

By: Andrew Goodman

Andrew Goodman — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:32:06 +0000

In the meantime, Lyn, you may wish to join my new startup — Macebook.

By: Lyn Plantinga

Lyn Plantinga — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:22:49 +0000

I could not agree more with your well-stated points. I was just telling someone today how much I despise the constant changes/intrusions/mistakes of Facebook. A year ago, I felt GRATITUDE toward Facebook management for providing me with a valuable tool. Now, I believe they are tone-deaf jerks. You have to make a boat load of mistakes to turn deep loyalty into total disgust. The trouble is, they don’t care what users think, because they believe they are too big to fail. I’m waiting … a new option will be coming soon, and I’ll jump ship faster than you can say “Betty White.”