Deleting your Facebook page?

Written by . Posted on May 17, 2010. Filed under Social Media, Stuff We Like. Tagged , . Bookmark the Permalink. Post a Comment. Leave a Trackback URL.

Maybe it’s the post 9/11 country music I’m listening to or the patriotic stirrings brought on by the fact the world cup is 25 days away, but I’m feeling a little opinionated, so sorry in advance.

This week news.com.au ran a story claiming that Facebook users were flocking ‘to find delete instructions’. They used a Google Insights screenshot to prove their point.  Classy.

Never one to avoid stooping to someone else’s level – here’s my Google Insights screenshot of “how do I delete my Facebook account” vs. “I love Facebook“.


Google Insights

That little blue bar at the end? That’s  “how do I delete…”.

Anyway, Google trend wars to one side – what is the actual debate when it comes to Facebook? Yes the privacy settings are complicated – I work in social media and still couldn’t tell you exactly what each of the 177,823,194 different privacy switches do.

But let’s take a step back here. Facebook is a free application.

I just want that to sink in for a moment – a free application that has changed the way most of us interact socially in a huge way. You didn’t have to buy it or subscribe to it. They gave it to you.

So it’s difficult to sort out your privacy settings? Ok, well I’ll take that as payment for real time social contact with friends on other continents, being able to avoid a date because her friends call her “tugboat” on her Facebook wall* and all the awful photos of me drunk at uni that, were it not for Facebook, would have been lost to time…well maybe that last one isn’t so great.

On Sept 12th 2006 there was ‘A Day without Facebook’, on Oct 18-19th the group ‘I hate Facebook’ did a 2 day boycott. I know about these because I found them on Facebook in 2010.

I’m skipping over the vast privacy debate that exists through all this and it’s too big for this blog post to get involved in, but my final point is simply this.

Facebook has a huge amount of information – they didn’t steal it from you – you gave it to them. If you don’t want them to have it, make it private. 15 minutes sitting down to learn the privacy settings is certainly worth all the fantastic benefits facebook gives us. From rekindling old friendships and keeping in touch with new friends to um…farmville.

facebook

*hypothetical situation, in case you wondered.

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  • http://digitalcortex.net/ Tom Saunter

    I'm the guy who wrote a blog post called 'Why Facebook is Awesome' last year.

    But lately, even I'm getting a bit anxious about all the data, and therefore control, that Facebook has on me. That's why I've just run a privacy test as suggested in this Lifehacker article. I'd advise those concerned to do the same.

    But fear not, advertisers! Users that have cranked their privacy settings all the way up to eleven can still be reached through the FB ad platform, just don't expect this bunch of techno-cynics to be as click-happy.

  • http://twitter.com/GeorgeWDixon George Dixon

    As a fairly long term user of Facebook I think you've missed a big point. Some people may be happy to share information some aren't and yes none of us were forced to put it onto the site. But Facebook used to be very closed (only students) and now it is very open (probably your Gran and the Uncle you never see or speak to). We opted to share this data with our friends becuase MySpace shared it with everyone (well I did). Now it's changed compeltely from what it was. Share our data fine, but make it opt in to do so, not the other way round.

  • http://twitter.com/benbale Ben Bale

    It's funny that you mention family members on facebook as I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. You're right that the 'student-focused' facebook of old allowed you to be pretty relaxed about what you shared and did create an atmosphere where it was ok to post anything.

    Now with my Gran on facebook (who recently tried to tell me off for posting something on facebook) it has certainly lost it's original purpose of organising student piss ups (or at least thats what it felt like!)

    I think we'd both be fools to think that a company the size of facebook hasn't seen and reacted to the privacy debate and the complaints that have been raised. However I think the likely outcome is that they'll simplify their privacy settings and tighten things up a bit rather than watch their user base crumble before their eyes.

    The opt-in/opt-out debate has always seemed strange to me – as long as I'm warned in advance and can opt-in/out out advance – I don't care which way they throw the switch – I'll have my choice made before it goes live. I'd give examples of opt-in: spam emails from signing up to online competitions and opt-out: removing your name from the phone book. Do we blame the phonebook for getting cold calls?

    I think we're all being too harsh on facebook – they did provide us with hours of fun thanks to http://failbook.com/ after all!

  • http://twitter.com/GeorgeWDixon George Dixon

    I am all for sharing and using consumer information for better advertising because I am a big believer in relevance, it's why I like online and love mobile. O2 More have got it right, Google have been doing it for years well too, but I think Facebook are going about it all the wrong way. They can use my data but why should the rest of the world wide web be able to see it too?

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