Neowin.net - Facebook angers users

Facebook angers users

Posted by Tom Warren on 07 September 2006 - 13:16 · 21 comments & 8781 views

On Tuesday, Facebook, the social networking service for uni and college students; released their latest updated interface.

The update has received mixed receptions and a lot of revolting from users angry that their privacy is being violated. People find it creepy that there is a single place to track what your friends movements have been on Facebook. The company is arogantly asking users to calm down but as one group "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)" already has 537,877 members and counting, management can hardly ignore the issues.

Microsoft recently inked a deal with Facebook for advertising which makes you wonder exactly what kind of information they will be processing in order to bring you these adverts. If Facebook isn't careful it will become as notorious as MySpace which has attracted a lot of media attention from a slew of sexual assaults and stalking incidents.

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(1 reply) #1 Posted by viserov on 07 Sep 2006 - 13:23: I really doubt they're going to remove it. At most, they will offer a privacy option.

#2 Posted by neufuse on 07 Sep 2006 - 13:35: when I first saw it i thought, this looks stupid I like the way it was when it first came out....

#3 Posted by Brian B on 07 Sep 2006 - 13:58: It is too creepy now... I mean, yeah... I could go to their profile and read the same thing, but I don't need to know when my friend commented on some other guys wall that I don't even know. It's just way too specifc and tracks almost every move you make on facebook.

(1 reply) #4 Posted by stifler6478 on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:01: I think in about a month, it'll all blow over. I personally don't mind the changes. And all the privacy concerns are null if you join Facebook, or for that matter, the internet, in the first place. Stalking really isn't a problem with Facebook (coming from someone who lists all his info on his profile). For people who just don't like the look, they'll get over it. For everyone else, it won't matter, because none of them are actually going to man up and stop using it.

-Spenser

#5 Posted by Croquant on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:02: It's just too easy to anger teenagers these days.
I bet they'd be getting the same kind of reaction if they announced a lolipop giveaway.

#6 Posted by PureLegend on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:02: Doesn't this already happen in forums?

#7 Posted by Digix on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:08: meh too many social networking sites, they are all garbage (even myspace).

#8 Posted by remix17 on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:16: Sure you can always stalk someone, but it usually takes effort. This thing makes it way too easy.

#9 Posted by ethugp3pp3r on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:37: it's not a huge deal....if somebody really wanted to know every move you were making, they'd probably be able to do it anyways....

people need to seriously stop complaining so much about all of this

#10 Posted by nowimnothing on 07 Sep 2006 - 14:37: I think its kind of creepy... but its not like any of that information wasn't readily available anyway.
People should be thinking about what information they're posting online instead of bitching when its shown how easily people can see said info.

#11 Posted by nemo on 07 Sep 2006 - 15:47: it's too much... i don't want to see all the crap on there.. and i don't want everyone seeing what i do.

if they implement privacy options to what I want other people to see what i'm doing... and implement what I want to see of other people... than i'll be happy... until then..

2:03 am. Nemo takes a ****.
2:06 am. Nemo goes to sleep.

I mean come on...

#12 Posted by Zoomba on 07 Sep 2006 - 16:41: I don't understand the commotion. The information in the news feed is what users have voluntarily posted in the first place, and it's only viewable to people they allow to add them as a friend. The only difference is now a user is 1-2 clicks closer to updated information.

People need to start to understand that if you post information about yourself online, you're sacrificing a great deal of your privacy to begin with. I don't think Mark's being at all arrogant to be saying "calm down" It's obvious most of the people that are super-offended by this don't have even the most basic grasp of what they're talking about.

#13 Posted by Samboini on 07 Sep 2006 - 16:49: As a facebook, I welcome the changes. Now no-one can brush there teeth without me knowing, hehe. But in all seriousness I welcome it as it saves me a lot of time not having to trawl friends web pages.

(1 reply) #14 Posted by knight03 on 07 Sep 2006 - 17:42: Stupid, stupid, stupid. Three words that describe this move by Facebook.

By the way Croquant, teenagers are not the only ones on facebook. Grad students in their 20's also make up a good bit of the population. And there is a serious concern for privacy with this feature.

#15 Posted by StarSabers on 07 Sep 2006 - 19:00: Facebook won't become a MySpace unless they open up profiles to everyone.

Everyone meaning any person from any school can see anyone else from any other school (or work, etc). As it is now, you can't do that unless you're in their network.

Everyone also means that not everyone can join Facebook. I have a few friends that still can't join because their work and/or school isn't there.

Anyone saying FB is the new MySpace needs to really look at the facts ... and privacy options. MySpace has very limit privacy options, as on FB, you can crack it all the way down to just about useless profile for everyone to fully featured profile for everyone.

I also think if they actually describe WHAT the News Feed is and how much it really reveals to others, people will see that it's really nothing that couldn't be done before. It'd limit the people who are ignorant to computers and how to use them. As it is now you have a bunch of people that think just the average joe off the street can see all this information about them -- when in actuallity that's a huge misinterpretation.

#16 Posted by Hooya on 07 Sep 2006 - 22:40: membership in that group is now over 660k people. They will overcome The Largest Group on Facebook in a day or so at this rate.

#17 Posted by Brian B on 08 Sep 2006 - 03:02: I hear that we will have the option to disable or choose what we want to display in our feed.

Check the offical group for the news.

#18 Posted by kak on 08 Sep 2006 - 04:12: People always had a problem with Facebook's ease of stalking, which is why most people set their profile to private unless they were a friend of that person. Unless that option was checked, it took effort to stalk someone. Now, the Facebook crew has literally made it effortless to keep tabs on people.

Its cool to a degree, but everything that is put out there is over the top. When they offer a way to remove/limit the 'feature,' I for one will definately do what is available to go back to the older Facebook style.

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