What's Really Wrong With Facebook

Facebook is presented as a service that can change how privacy works without changing its policy, so the policy itself does little to protect data. The article also argues that Facebook’s mobile permissions and News Feed design give the company broad reach over user information and attention, while making its influence hard to see.

Reading notes

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• Facebook changes privacy settings and feature behavior often enough that the policy alone does not protect user data.
• The company can make private information more visible over time, even without a dramatic policy change.
• Facebook once offered users a vote on future privacy changes, but the threshold was so high that the option disappeared.
• The service has made it harder to keep a private experience by removing the ability to block lookup by name and enforcing real-name use.
• Facebook also reaches beyond the site through logins on other services and mobile app permissions.
• On Android, permissions are accepted as a whole; on iOS, permissions can be turned off later, but each permission is still all on or all off.
• The News Feed is curated, so users usually do not see everything their friends and family post unless they search for the most recent feed.
• Facebook has used user testing that showed moods could be affected by different kinds of posts.
• The feed can create feedback loops that push more political posts, more negative content, or more content shaped by advertising.
• The article says the feed is an illusion that can skew how people see their friends’ lives and their own.