There has been quite a backlash against
Facebook recently due to their dodgy and ever changing Privacy Policy.
This piece by
Jason Calacanis talks about companies getting "Zuckered" and accuses Facebook of a lot of wrong doing, including the most common complaint of constantly changing it's complicated Privacy Policy.
http://calacanis.com/2010/05/12/the-big-game-zuckerberg-and-overplaying-your-hand/This site reveals just how much people share, often without their knowledge. It's a search engine for all the public status updates and it's amazing what people will share with the world:
http://www.youropenbook.orgIt's not all hate for Facebook though, here's an article defending them:
http://mashable.com/2010/05/16/in-defense-of-facebook/I think that there is a middle ground here though. Facebook isn't really all that evil. You are voluntarily putting all this information into their system, you are given the options to restrict access to the information you enter into the system - albeit with a changing system, but social media sites are still in their early years and there are problems to be ironed out.
The thing that all these critics forget that lots of people out there
want to share their thoughts, opinions, pictures and life with the world and broadcast their life. Most people who stupidly post on Facebook that they hate their boss would have been caught on email / instant messenger or in the tearoom. It's just another forum, that we are still exploring.
I think the article below is far more balanced and tries to explain that Facebook did not take your privacy - I'm inclined to agree.
http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=143909
