How private is Facebook?

Dear PropellerHeads: I keep getting popup messages on Facebook telling me to check my privacy settings. Why?

A: The New Yorker ran a cartoon in 1993 featuring a tech-savvy canine sitting at a computer and telling his dog pal, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." Now, thanks to Facebook, lots of people know you're a dog, and where you live, and what you look like. And it's no longer just pre-approved friends who have access to this information.

In April, Facebook (facebook.com) launched "instant personalization," whereby select Facebook partners - currently Microsoft, Pandora (pandora.com) and Yelp (yelp.com) - are automatically given access to aspects of your Facebook profile in order to customize their sites for you. Before you even sign up or fill out a form, Pandora will already know what music you like and Yelp will already know where you live, courtesy of Facebook (http://bit.ly/auBi7G).

Websites customized just for you, with no input required - why is this bad? Because Facebook has made it their policy to share your information without first getting your permission. They direct you to the new settings post facto, hence the popup messages you see.

Again: Facebook now shares data about you that they had previously kept private. They're the top dog, and they're treating your privacy like a fire hydrant.

If that bothers you, you'll have to change your privacy settings to opt-out, since Facebook opts everyone in by default. One could be forgiven for thinking that Facebook purposely complicates the process of tweaking privacy settings, what with 50 settings and 170 different options spread across multiple pages (helpfully summarized by The New York Times at http://nyti.ms/aAdEgw).

Facebook is no stranger to this bait-and-switch scam. CNET documents their past transgressions at http://bit.ly/aEyiDy. An interactive graph at http://bit.ly/9sh0Hp charts the "Evolution [degeneration, really] of Privacy on Facebook," while http://bit.ly/d4naY5 shows a sample Facebook profile with all public information clearly marked. (You might be surprised.)

What is new is the backlash. ReadWriteWeb reports that some prominent bloggers, podcasters and conference organizers are deleting their Facebook accounts (http://bit.ly/9Uaa4u), and PCWorld collects more negative industry reactions at http://bit.ly/chsdIT.

Facebookprotest.com is urging everyone to "refrain from ALL Facebook related activity" on June 6, while QuitFacebookDay.com has more than 2,000 commitments to abandon the site entirely on May 31.

Type "How do I" into Google's search box and their auto-suggest feature puts "How do I delete my Facebook account" at the top, reflecting current search trends. Hint: deletefacebook.com has you covered.

The reaction isn't going unnoticed. It's normal for privacy activists at the Electronic Frontier Foundation to decry this sort of thing (http://bit.ly/azbZeq), and for PCWorld to cover it (http://bit.ly/9kd3hE).

But even mainstream sources like CNN (http://bit.ly/dl2wUC) and The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/c4bz0a) are paying attention this time. Reuters even reports that four U.S. senators have asked the FTC to address the issue (http://bit.ly/9Nwq1Z).

Spurred by the controversy, four NYU students have announced a project called Diaspora (http://joindiaspora.com/), which aims to be a more open, privacy-respecting alternative to Facebook, although they're just getting started.

Elliot Schrage, VP of Communications at Facebook, defends the company's recent decisions at http://nyti.ms/dpgJlf. He makes some good points (many users don't mind the loss of anonymity on the Web, for example), but is at times condescending, insisting that part of the problem is confused users.

A blogger at Technologizer (http://bit.ly/aou3AP) put it best: "Facebook has a history of asking for forgiveness rather than permission, and now says the default for everything is 'social' [i.e., public] - so the best way to keep things private is to keep them off the service, period."

If you're hoping to maintain any sort of privacy on Facebook, you're barking up the wrong tree... For more on the changes, the reaction and the controversy, check out our blog at http://bit.ly/bpKyKD.

When the PropellerHeads at Data Directions aren't busy with their IT projects, they love to answer questions on business or consumer technology. E-mail them to questions@askthepropellerheads.com or contact us at Data Directions Inc., 8510 Bell Creek Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23116. Visit our Web site at www.askthepropellerheads.com.