Let's face it: Facebook hit critical mass and the mainstream a while ago. According to the site itself, there are over 400 million active users, and 50 percent of them visit on any given day. Even my brother-in-law's 91-year-old grandma is on Facebook. Now that's mainstream.
When anything grows that large, that quickly, backlash is all but inevitable. But "backlash" seems like a mild term to apply to the very vocal and growing complaints that Facebook plays fast and loose with its members' privacy.
In his column titled "Facebook: Privacy Enemy Number One?" PCMag's reviews editor Dan Costa noted in April that "the simple fact that gets lost in the rush towards ubiquitous social connectivity is that Facebook users still don't know what they are sharing, with whom, or why it matters. In short: Facebook remains a privacy minefield.
And just yesterday, lead software and Web services analyst Michael Muchmore reported in his story, "Grading Facebook's Privacy Changes": "In the wake of members of Congress and consumer watchdog groups' calling for changes to Facebook's privacy policy, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the company "missed the mark," and made changes to Facebook's privacy policy that were announced at a press event on Wednesday."
Changes that will be rolling out include a one-click privacy-setting button; less information in public profiles; and more control over the access Web services and apps have to your information.
Are these enough for you, though? Or will you be joining the Facebookers who have vowed to quit the service on what they've dubbed Quit Facebook Day, this coming May 31? Vote in our poll and check the results.
source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2364271,00.asp