Facebook's Privacy Backlash

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Alessandro Acquisti <acquisti () andrew cmu edu>
Date: September 7, 2006 2:11:41 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Facebook's Privacy Backlash

Dave -

While the Facebook offers quite granular privacy controls (I am not
referring to the latest development), their default settings are very
permeable. In studies Ralph Gross and I have been doing, we show that  
a very
small portion of Facebook users at CMU ever alters those settings. One
reason is common to other HCI studies - people often don't change a  
system's
default values. Other reasons are related to peer pressure, herding
behavior, and deliberate "signaling." Another reason lies in the fact  
that
online social networks (such as the FB) are "imagined" communities:  
their
membership, breach, and scope often go well beyond what most of their  
users
perceive and trust.

The dichotomy between perception and reality is particularly marked  
for the
Facebook because its networks are ostensibly linked to geographically
well-defined and contained communities (college campuses). In reality,
external access to those networks is quite easy (and, anecdotally,  
common).

This is not completely unintentional. For many online social  
networks, the
business model relies on limited privacy and limited security: as  
economic
network goods, their value increases with the number of members (hence
registration and access must be kept easy - no https or complex identity
validation procedures), and with the amount of information and potential
points of contacts between members (hence abundant information  
revelation is
encouraged through default settings and design strategies). There is an
incentive to push that envelope towards less and less privacy - until  
a sore
spot is hit, members' reaction is awakened, and the business risks of  
that
strategy materialize. Like what happened this week with the Facebook.

BTW - Fred Stutzman (UNC) and danah boyd (UCB) are also doing  
research on
these topics. Some results of our own studies can be found here:

http://ralphgross.com/Publications/acquisti-gross-facebook-privacy- 
PET.pdf

http://ralphgross.com/Publications/privacy-facebook-gross-acquisti.pdf

best,

-alessandro
-----------------------
Alessandro Acquisti
Heinz School, Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/~acquisti/research.htm
-----------------------

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:46 AM
> To: ip () v2 listbox com
> Subject: [IP] Facebook's Privacy Backlash
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> Date: September 6, 2006 11:27:59 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: lauren () vortex com
> Subject: Facebook's Privacy Backlash
>
>
> Dave,
>
> Apparently many student "Facebook" users have rebelled against a new
> "timestamped" feed that details minute by minute actions by others.
> See: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1532225,00.html
>
> What's particularly interesting about this isn't so much the utter
> cluelessness and carelessness of privacy-invasive features without
> acceptable flexibility in user controls, but rather the insight
> we gain into how much privacy invasion such users will accept before
> they finally say "enough is enough."
>
> Perhaps more students are finally starting to see the privacy light
> at the end of the tunnel, despite the marketing hype blasting at
> them from all sides on a virtual 24/7 basis.  Of course, unless
> students also ultimately vote with their pocketbooks and wallets, the
> butchers of privacy -- wherever they may be -- will still win
> in the end.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>     - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, IOIC
>     - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
> Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com
>
>
>
>
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