Facebook's Privacy Strip Tease

Facebook is pushing its users to make their profile information public, and as with any change the popular site makes, there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. As a member of numerous social networking sites, some public and some private, I have mixed feelings surrounding my privacy settings on Facebook.

First, to begin with the all too over-used comparison between Facebook and Twitter. On Twitter, I know my updates are public, therefore I don't post all my business there, and I don't use my full name on my profile because I don't want my tweets to showing up in Google search results above my portfolio site when I do a vanity search. Facebook on the other hand, advertises itself as a place to share your life with your family and friends. Maybe some people use the term "friend" more loosely, but to me, a friend is someone I would want to hang out with in real life, hence 95% of my Facebook friends are people I know outside of the interwebs. The privacy of Facebook allows me to post more intimate details of my life, as well as photos of my son to those I am comfortable showing that information to. Twitter and Facebook serve two different purposes for me and they do it well just the way they are.

I understand that Facebook is a free service that has the right to make changes to their site and policies as they please, but if they continue to knock down the walled garden, there is a lot of personal data I will have to delete and status updates and photos I will no longer be able to post, making it useless for how I want to use my account. And yes, I understand that Facebook has update by update privacy control, but those controls are not available on the iPhone app which is my main way of using the service.

Twitter provides simplicity. You sign up and can start tweeting away instantly. Facebook is the PC of the social networking world. You sign up, and have to spend some time setting up privacy settings for each section of your profile and creating friend lists to control who can see various parts of your profile before you ever post your first update.

My biggest problem with Facebook's privacy strip tease is: What are their plans for any publicly shared information? Will all my updates and photos eventually show up in Google search results attached to my full name? Will my profile picture be used in an advertisement on another friend's page? I would be more open to making more of my profile public if Facebook would be more open with me.

UPDATE: Poll Results 1/12/10 - 1/19/10

Is public the new social norm?
20% Yes
60% No
20% Meh

Safety & Location-Based Social Networking Sites

I recently signed up for a BrightKite account. For those unfamiliar with BrightKite, it's a location-based social networking site that allows users to see where their friends are in real time, and users also have the opportunity to meet new people that are nearby. Users "check-in" to post their current location to BrightKite. This can be an exact location such as an address or name of a restaurant, store, etc., or the location can be more obscure such as just a city and state depending on how the user feels about privacy. There is also a toggle switch to flip back and forth between public and private modes. After checking-in, the user can post photos or notes associated with that location for others to see.

I use the BrightKite app on my iPhone, and the iPhone's location-based services makes checking-in a snap. I've only been using BrightKite for about a month now. Mostly, I keep my location set to my city and state unless I go out to eat or shopping and have something interesting to post. Today, I've been playing around in BrightKite to set placemarks and set privacy settings for each location to get more use out of the service. I start with the two places I'm at the most: home and work. Setting these two locations to private was a no brainer for me personally. Whatever others feel about giving out their home and work addresses online is their business, but I like to keep them private except to a very select group of trusted friends. Then, I turn my attention to other places I take my son to regularly like the park. I debate over whether the park should be public or private when I check-in there. I think, maybe there might be another cool mom there, BrightKite would alert us, and I might make a new friend. But then I feared, publicly giving out the location I was at with my son might lead to some creep stalking us. Risking my son's safety is something I'm not willing to do, so I set the park to private.

Location-based social networking is a very cool thing, but I think a certain amount of caution has to be used. I know BrightKite is just one of the many sites taking on this new frontier, and they have a fastly growing popularity. So, I'm curious who else fancies location-based social networking and who is opposed? What privacy settings do you feel most comfortable with? Any success stories meeting cool new people? Or just stalkers? Please share your stories.

UPDATE: Poll Results 11/18/08 - 11/25/08

Do you use any location-based social networking sites?
66% Yes
00% No
00% Thinking about it
34% Meh