Facebook, Your Privacy Has Been Changed…let the stalking commence by Jay Mellon, Partner

Facebook Places was launched a few days ago, and has generated controversy about user privacy. Hasn’t Facebook learned anything from the other times privacy has been a major issue for them? Apparently not… This new feature is designed to let you ‘check in’ at whatever location you are at and is similar to Foursquare. Unfortunately, with Facebook, the app is installed with public access and even with enabling the privacy settings it appears that you can quickly lose the ability to decide who sees where you are in real time. For more information on how to use facebook ‘Places’, check out this PC World article.

There are some benefits:

• You can keep tabs on individuals. For example, let’s say your son is taking a road trip to Florida. Instead of calling at every rest stop, he can ‘check in’ to the McDonald’s at each stop he makes.

• Businesses can also benefit from it. Although ‘Places’ hasn’t reached the caliber that FourSquare already has, they will soon start to integrate similar features.

There are also some disadvantages:

• Other people can check you in. If your friends take you out for your birthday to a bar, they can post that you were there with them. However, that information may not be something you want everyone to see.

• Also, your friends can check in at your house. One of the examples that a CNN article used involved a brother and a sister. The brother visited his sister and posted it to his Facebook Places. ‘Places’ included a map and the neighborhood in which she and her young children live. Do we really want to give out the address of our friends and relatives to everyone – even if they are a Facebook ‘friend?’ Plus the homeowner has no control over that post. Maybe your sister doesn’t want to publish her address and on Facebook. Even with privacy settings enabled you have no control over who sees what is being posted. In other words, even if you only allow friends to see Places, the friends of your friends are seeing the information and if they haven’t enabled the privacy settings – suddenly your whereabouts are open to the publc!

• Privacy settings automatically allow for open, public access, which means the default privacy settings allow your friends to tag you in Places, and allows others to comment on your ‘Places’ post. (To change these setting, see below.)

• Stalking can and will ensue. If you are constantly posting places you are visiting, it might result in a potential stalking case. This can be dangerous, especially to younger kids who are using Facebook.

So how do you change the settings in your facebook account?

Locate the drop down menu named ‘Account’ at the top right of the screen, click. When the menu drops down, select ‘Account Settings.’ Towards the top of the screen, there are a number of tabs: ‘Settings’, ‘Networks’, ‘Notifications’, etc. Select the ‘Notifications’ tab. Scroll down to find ‘Places’ and deselect the two check boxes.

Why doesn’t Facebook err on the side of caution when they update privacy settings?

Do you think Facebook Places is a good or bad addition to the site? What are your thoughts?