According to Facebook, the new change in email addresses settings isn’t a violation of user privacy but is rather an aid to visibility and their settings. After researching their new found idea, it was discovered that privacy and visibility are two different things, at least according to them.
Facebook recently changed its user’s profiles by enabling the email address settings to show everyone their Facebook addresses. Once there used to be addresses that people chose for themselves and their privacy but now as Facebook has taken matters in its own hands, their addresses are currently visible even when they opted for the invisibility option.
According to Oxford Dictionary, privacy is the state or condition of being free from observation whereas visibility is the state of being able to see or be seen. In the hotchpotch of definitions, Facebook and played the game of words and used the definitions to an advantage that is quite surprisingly cunning. User’s don’t want to be flooded with random emails from their friends or peers, many don’t want their Facebook email ID logins to merge with other available ID’s.
Some people have had Facebook accounts for more than eight years, and as people grow from teenage to adulthood, everything changes but their Facebook login email address, for some their email addresses could be embarrassing considering we all had funny and immature login ID’s at least once in our lifetime. Some leave them and some stick to them, for those who have stuck with their adolescent email ID’s might be embarrassed so see their amusing email ID sprawled on their Facebook account page.
According to a Facebook spokesman, visibility and privacy are different. Privacy means to hide something and this is associated with people choosing to keep their email id’s invisible and personal, but visibility is the state of being able to be seen. Facebook has confused the meaning of this as the basic reason behind privacy is to limit visibility of objects and ideas that you don’t want observed or noted. By taking this right away from people Facebook could gain unpopularity in the future.
Currently Facebook is associated with at least 40 lawsuits, they’re paying millions of dollars to charity to stabilize their image and for other cases they’re trying to find the legal way out of their activities. By taking such actions in the midst of a lawsuit crisis might cause Facebook to deal with a couple of new lawsuits, some defining the new terminology and link between visibility and privacy.
With such ridiculous notions, Facebook could lose its users to other social networking websites. Considering the internet is full of social networking portals such as Google +, Linkedln and Twitter, users might start leaving Facebook because of their privacy concerns and opt for something better, convenient and less prone to sudden changes.
Facebook needs to step up its game and start giving users these uncomfortable surprises. Users already suspect Facebook with giving out personal information to different agencies. Personal information helps companies determine demand and innovate new products by looking at the needs and requirements of people. Considering Facebook has taken away the term security and privacy it’s a matter of time till users understand the maze they’re stuck in.
Facebook might be our favorite social networking center, a hub that lets us communicate with friends and friends of friends and even strangers. It helps us build associations and new linkages but at what cost? If we’re giving away personal privacy and don’t have any freedom to guard its visibility, what benefit could social networking give us?
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