I am not a Facebook person but have been toying with becoming a user recently for personal and professional reasons. Now I’m not so sure. It seems that Facebook changed its privacy policies this week and now publishes a lot of data that was considered private and controlled exclusively by users until this week.

Check out this article as it does a good job explaining the changes in privacy policy and the associated implications:

There are a few lessons to be learned here:

1. The best web properties (Amazon, iTunes, Google, etc.) quickly figured out how to use Internet ubiquity to make money. The web business model seeking to attract users, create buzz, and then figure out how to monetize this trend seems to fail more often than not.

2. Facebook’s radical about-face here tells me that it may be in some trouble. Look for turnover in the executive ranks soon.

3. Anyone with children who use Facebook should pay more attention to their activities moving forward. We are raising a generation of kids who don’t understand or appreciate their privacy. We need to educate them and protect them from bait-and-switch tactics like Facebook’s.

I’m sure Facebook won’t appreciate my thoughts but those of us who cherish our right to privacy aren’t dancing a jig about Facebook’s policy changes either.

Related posts:

1. Google + DoubleClick = Privacy Problems
2. Massachusetts Delays Its Data Privacy Compliance Deadline — Again!

Tags: Facebook, Privacy