wallydownundy

How many of us have the tenacity and determination to leave Facebook? It’s like peaking over the neighbour’s fence. We see photos of the kids and who is in a relationship. We get a status update the moment that relationship ends. I’ve reconnected with high school students I hadn’t seen…well…since high school. And I’ve updated everyone in my network on the minutiae of my life (Ethan’s lost tooth, our holiday to the Gold Coast).

So why the growing movement? And why the global drive to deplete some of the 400 million users? Already the dedicated web site has 13,638 people willing to close down their accounts (see Quit Facebook Day).  It all centres on privacy.

In a public forum like this blog, I expect all and sundry to visit. In fact when my FireStats show a decrease in readership I worry. Wasn’t I wry enough? Did I lack relevance? If it weren’t for the trawling public I’d be another lunatic speaking to himself in solitude. (Now I’m a lunatic surrounded by readers!) Same with Twitter. These are public forums.

The disappointment with Facebook is the public-private conundrum. My Facebook account is private. I don’t allow work colleagues in. For them, there’s Linked In. But Facebook allows me to select who I share information with - or so we thought.

In an attempt to monetise Facebook, leaders at the site have created trapdoors in each and every person’s profile. That allows Facebook to share your data with advertisers. They can then tailor their materials to your specific interests.

And more and more, Facbook makes it harder and harder to find these trapdoors and seal them shut. Just when you’ve navigated the maze of Options and User Settings, the list is changed and you’re required to re-enter the labyrinth. Amazingly people often give op - and leave their trap doors swinging in the breeze.

So the cutting edge of technorati have finally tired of the game. They’re unwilling to have their personal data sold and exchanged. And they’re leaving Facebook - if not in droves, then in dribbles.

For the public, it won’t take the protestations of the electrified elite. Instead one more blunder by Facebook and their site will become tomorrow’s MySpace. An erroneous advertiser shoots off a dating site offer to members of a religious site? Or Moms are urged to visit a swinger’s site? Or worse?

Sooner or later the hand that has fed Facebook will be bitten - and by then it will be too late. But for now the scurrilous behaviour of ever-evolving privacy settings is the clearest signal. Facebook cannot be trusted.