This comment thread is a perfect example of the problem with fb's privacy control system. HN readers are generally tech-savvy and privacy-aware, especially rela

This comment thread is a perfect example of the problem with fb's privacy control system. HN readers are generally tech-savvy and privacy-aware, especially relative to the typical fb user. Yet this thread is full of many comments exhibiting confusion as to how these settings behave under difference circumstances. When working with unheralded amounts of potentially publicly consumable personal information, the bar for appropriate privacy handling that most of us expect is very high. And our bar is clearly higher than facebook's internal bar. Yet, we usually conflate these discussions with asides about their motivations - financial gain, genuine ideological belief in open identity, or just mistakes from product leadership. Those are distractions, in that they often lead to speculative discussions that can make stakeholders revert to defensive positions. I would rather focus on functionality - pretty much every action a user takes on fb has potential privacy consequences, so we should be asking: * How obvious are those during the action flow? (pretty much not at all - and clearly the culprit here) * When building features, at what point and in what detail are the privacy consequences analyzed? (currently unknown but the impression continues to be that some privacy issues are intentionally reactively) Aside: my personal experience with facebook employees is one of tremendous socio-economic homogeneity. I do wonder if the culture their building internally is qualified to handle the real diversity of 1B+ people. (If someone were to quote Danah Boyd's subaltern vs. hegemon model of social network interaction here, I would begrudgingly not cringe, just this once).