5 ms·

The issue isn't Facebook's controls, it's user behavior, and there's little anyone can do about it. I don't use Facebook because of this. There's not much the

The issue isn't Facebook's controls, it's user behavior, and there's little anyone can do about it. I don't use Facebook because of this. There's not much the company can do to prevent people from making things public about you that you'd rather keep among friends. How is Facebook to know the implications of you being at one party vs another? Sharing is sharing. Just because you keep your profile locked down doesn't matter when someone else can share whatever they like with whomever they like. I understand not having a profile doesn't completely prevent this, but it helps make it a lot less public. Nobody will receive a notification linked to my profile that I was tagged in a photo because there's no profile to associate. We're past the point of being able to prevent this entirely, but I'm not going to make it any easier.

jeremyarussell 14y ago
The only issue is there is no real technical reason why individual A's friends need messaged when individual B took the action.
mgkimsal 14y ago
Ummm... the issue is facebook's controls. If I add you to my group (without you even knowing), the system should not be sending out notices to all of your contacts that you 'joined' my group. You didn't join, you were added - there's a huge difference.
- hnriot 14y ago
  * the system should not be sending out notices to all of your contacts that you 'joined' my group* - that's up to Facebook, and the parent is quite correct, if you don't your private life out there for all to see, don't put it on a social networking site because you don't have any control, other that what Facebook feel is in their interest to have. You give up that control when you put it online. I have no sympathy for people that get found out because they put the information on Facebook and someone they didn't want to know saw it. People have to start taking responsibility for their own privacy and not crying to Facebook whenever this sort of thing happens. Also I tend not to believe most people because its an easy way to tell a burning secret without actually doing it, the confessors version of suicide by police. tl;dr - don't put your secrets in the hands of facebook's whims because they aren't your best friend, they are a commercial business and your privacy isn't their concern, except when it suits them to be.
  - TWAndrews 14y ago
    The point is that the users who were outed didn't "put secrets in the hands of facebook's whims" [sic], they were outed, when someone else assigned them to a group that the other person had created. Simply put, you when someone assigns you to a group, by default you should get a notification along the lines of "So-and-so has added you to a group x. Are you part of group x?" Very much like how tagging in photos currently works, though I think there the default is to allow tagging.
    - mgkimsal 14y ago
      I guess you're missing the respondent's POV - don't put anything, ever, in facebook, because ultimately they don't give two shakes about you or anything else other than making money. Total answer to this is if the person wasn't on facebook, none of this would have happened.
      - graeme 14y ago
        True. But that's not a realistic solution for most people. It's like saying "don't have a cell phone". I mean, you can not do it, but you're out of a lot of people's loops. The point of the article was that these people did everything right apart from that. They DIDN'T put anything on Facebook. They were added to a group without their approval.
      - darkarmani 14y ago
        Well, that could be the "answer" to every situation where someone got victimized. Participating in society of course opens you up to the possibility of being victimized. How is the answer "don't participate in society" instead of "make society a better place?"
    - hnriot 14y ago
      you should get a notification along the lines of so-and-so has added you to a group x - so says you, but what you're entirely missing (again) is that it's entirely up to facebook what notifications they send and just because you think they should, because of your privacy concerns, doesn't mean that FB will because their concern isn't your privacy, but rather making money for their shareholders.
- raimondious 14y ago
  I agree this particular feature should be fixed, however fixing it doesn't solve the core issue of your contacts sharing information about you. This is the core functionality of Facebook I can't agree with, no matter how their privacy controls work.

jeremyarussell 14y ago

The only issue is there is no real technical reason why individual A's friends need messaged when individual B took the action.

mgkimsal 14y ago

Ummm... the issue is facebook's controls. If I add you to my group (without you even knowing), the system should not be sending out notices to all of your contacts that you 'joined' my group. You didn't join, you were added - there's a huge difference.

hnriot 14y ago
* the system should not be sending out notices to all of your contacts that you 'joined' my group* - that's up to Facebook, and the parent is quite correct, if you don't your private life out there for all to see, don't put it on a social networking site because you don't have any control, other that what Facebook feel is in their interest to have. You give up that control when you put it online. I have no sympathy for people that get found out because they put the information on Facebook and someone they didn't want to know saw it. People have to start taking responsibility for their own privacy and not crying to Facebook whenever this sort of thing happens. Also I tend not to believe most people because its an easy way to tell a burning secret without actually doing it, the confessors version of suicide by police. tl;dr - don't put your secrets in the hands of facebook's whims because they aren't your best friend, they are a commercial business and your privacy isn't their concern, except when it suits them to be.
- TWAndrews 14y ago
  The point is that the users who were outed didn't "put secrets in the hands of facebook's whims" [sic], they were outed, when someone else assigned them to a group that the other person had created. Simply put, you when someone assigns you to a group, by default you should get a notification along the lines of "So-and-so has added you to a group x. Are you part of group x?" Very much like how tagging in photos currently works, though I think there the default is to allow tagging.
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    I guess you're missing the respondent's POV - don't put anything, ever, in facebook, because ultimately they don't give two shakes about you or anything else other than making money. Total answer to this is if the person wasn't on facebook, none of this would have happened.
    - graeme 14y ago
      True. But that's not a realistic solution for most people. It's like saying "don't have a cell phone". I mean, you can not do it, but you're out of a lot of people's loops. The point of the article was that these people did everything right apart from that. They DIDN'T put anything on Facebook. They were added to a group without their approval.
    - darkarmani 14y ago
      Well, that could be the "answer" to every situation where someone got victimized. Participating in society of course opens you up to the possibility of being victimized. How is the answer "don't participate in society" instead of "make society a better place?"
  - hnriot 14y ago
    you should get a notification along the lines of so-and-so has added you to a group x - so says you, but what you're entirely missing (again) is that it's entirely up to facebook what notifications they send and just because you think they should, because of your privacy concerns, doesn't mean that FB will because their concern isn't your privacy, but rather making money for their shareholders.
raimondious 14y ago
I agree this particular feature should be fixed, however fixing it doesn't solve the core issue of your contacts sharing information about you. This is the core functionality of Facebook I can't agree with, no matter how their privacy controls work.