According to Tech Crunch:
There has been an overwhelmingly negative public response to Facebook’s launch of two new products yesterday. The products, called News Feed and Mini Feed, allow users to get a quick view of what their friends are up to, including relationship changes, groups joined, pictures uploaded, etc., in a streaming news format.
Many tens of thousands of Facebook users are not happy with the changes. Frank Gruber notes that a Facebook group has been formed called “Students Against Facebook News Feed”. A commenter in our previous post said the group was closing in on 100,000 members as of 9:33 PM PST, less than a day after the new features were launched.
Digging into the comments on various sites, it seems people are a) freaked out by change, b) not paying attention to how the Facebook privacy features worked, c) feel they are losing control over their data, which does not in fact appear to be the case.
Just wait until Myspace does something similar. A savvy politico could launch a political career my representing Facebook and Myspace users.
Reminds me of the uproar over the FriendFinder integration of SpringStreet a few short months ago. Blog and message boards rattled for days over the supposedly b0rked changeover to FF systems. I actually cancelled my account recently due to the fact that it appears the FastCupid (was SpringStreet) site has been left to slowly die off.
With Heyletsgo taking over the social aspects of Craigslist Boston, I'm basically off Myspace and Tribe, which have been rendered moot for me.
Fred Stutzman of ClaimID fame has more great insights into the situation. Fred is a total academic stud when it comes to covering Facebook.
As Scott McNealy said to the consternation of many: "You have no privacy. Get over it."
Update: Facebook Followup.
Technorati Tags: facebook, privacy
1. Steve on September 6, 2006 4:22 PM writes...
Here is a live counter of the number of people who have joined the "Students against Facebook News Feed" group on Facebook..... 300,000 and climbing
http://digg.com/tech_news/Facebook_Stalker_City_Includes_LIVE_Counter
Permalink to Comment2. Tom on September 6, 2006 7:44 PM writes...
I have been following the "crisis" and am aggravated at how many people misinterpret the reasons for this protest.
I'm part of it, and I agree with your point - sort of. A lot of people, it's true, are getting hysterical because they feel their privacy was violated. It wasn't. They just think it was, because they don't realize that the news feed is just a condensed version of what they're already putting out there on the internet in the first place. Anyone that nnated to know that information could get it, and while this does make it easier, it's no more obvious.
But, if I may say so, you are jumping to the conclusion that everyone is of the same mind. Personally, I don't care what people know about me, and I make sure that anything I post on Facebook is something I wouldn't mind telling people. The problem for me is that I think it's a waste of space and time. Its location on each person's profile was previously filled with information like, for example, birthdays, cell phone numbers, AIM screen names - things I would actually use. Now I'm told that he decided to join the group "I like yogurt," or that she wrote a message on another person's profile at 4:00 a.m. I honestly don't want to know any of that; it doesn't matter to me. The home page is even worse: if anyone who is my friend (215 people) so much as sneezed, I get a huge list for the day telling me so (currently 25 events).
I want to be able to turn it off, but for me, not for other people - if they want to know that I "friended" Dan Quayle, more power to them. I just don't want it in the way.
Permalink to Comment3. Concerned Student on September 6, 2006 10:49 PM writes...
Delete all feed items from your profile:
Visit http://evernex.com/facebook and follow the instructions to install a bookmark to their browser toolbar. It literally takes 10 seconds or less to install. Once installed it will delete all visible Feed items whenever a user is viewing their own profile and clicks the bookmark.
Permalink to Comment4. Bryant on September 7, 2006 9:51 AM writes...
Take Back the Facebook!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Take_Action_against_Facebook_Feeds
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