After watching the 2009 documentary We Live in Public in class, I’ve been trying to be more wary of my privacy settings on various social media outlets. You could probably say I have some weird form of techie OCD when it comes to Facebook; about once a week, I check my privacy settings and friend lists (along with profile and photo album visibility regarding said lists) just to make sure everyone is seeing what I want them to see. On this particular day of appeasing my techie OCD, I came across a strange discovery.
If you have a Facebook account, do the following and tell me you don’t feel like Mark Zuckerberg (*cough* Josh Harris *cough*) is hoarding your internet activity to use at a later time. Go to:
Facebook > Account > Account Settings > Download Your Information (Learn More)
Granted, I wasn’t surprised that Facebook had just weaseled this option in there without any sort of warning or notification (it’s about as common as waking up and seeing your profile layout completely changed for the fifth time), but you have to admit, the idea that Facebook has every wall post, photo album, video, friend on your list, note, event listing, and message thread neatly converted into .html format and then compressed into a huge .zip file is a little strange, to say the least.
After I told Facebook that I wanted to download my information, it took almost a whole day to receive a confirmation e-mail with the link to download MY OWN INFORMATION.
Granted, although it creeped me out a little bit to see everything organized like that, I was actually relieved that this folder didn’t also include everything I had ever posted or written on other people’s profiles. However, you know that the instant someone decides to download their information, any comment or post I had put on their profile will be saved forever for them to see.
After raising an eyebrow at Facebook for 40 minutes as I downloaded my internet life in a .zip file, I began to wonder, “What would make Facebook want to do this?” Other than the rare occasion that eeeeeevery single server for Facebook crashes beyond repair and people lose their files forever, I have a very strange feeling that one day we’re going to have the choice (or necessity) to buy this seemingly useless collection of data.
It absolutely is amazing how much data a social media site such as Facebook can collect about us, without us ever knowing! I recently went onto my privacy settings to check out what everyone was buzzing about regarding new settings. What I strangely noticed was how you really have to dig deep into your privacy settings in order to actually have some privacy. Unless you change your settings in detail, you are giving away so much information. Worst part of it is that they actually have warning pop ups that if you disable certain information, your friends won’t be able to see information that is linked to you, or that your information may potentially no longer fully be shared by advertisers! Absolute insanity is what this is. So if anyone is interested, here is a link to a few tips from Business Insider about how to protect yourself and your personal information on Facebook. I would follow their suggestions (actually this is exactly what I did)… http://www.businessinsider.com/updated-how-to-put-facebook-on-a-privacy-lockdown-2010-5#go-to-facebookcom-and-drag-the-account-menut-on-the-top-right-to-privacy-settings-1