Today I got a notice when I logged onto Facebook that all of my “Interests” (favorite movie, music, books, etc.) were going to now link to “fan pages”, and if I didn’t agree to that… the things I had personally listed in my profile could possibly be deleted. Well, of course, I didn’t agree to that. If I want to link to someone’s page or site, that is MY decision. I consider threatening to erase my personal information if I don’t allow it to be linked to Facebook fan pages to be extortion.
As soon as I refused… sure enough… the fact that I love the 1939 movie “King Kong” was deleted from my profile, along with many other favorite films, books, and recording artists. Facebook removed from me the possibility of controlling what I choose to represent my tastes. I can only represent myself by things for which Facebook “fan pages” exist, and that I am willing to link to.
This, for me personally, was the one step over the line.
If the notice had said… “Facebook is an expensive thing to run, and we have decided to charge you $9.99 per month to continue to use our service” I might have seriously considered it.
But it didn’t say that… it said essentially… if you don’t agree to link everything you claim to be an interest to a Facebook Fan Page… we are going to delete all of your personal entries.
In plain English… that just SUCKS.
I’m done with that kind of thinking. I probably benefited as a producer of Internet content by my presence on Facebook. I no longer care enough to stay there. They altered MY ENTRIES because I wouldn’t agree to link them to “fan pages”.
Facebook Sucks. I deleted everything I have ever posted and deactivated my Facebook account.
To those I leave behind…. enjoy Farmville.
Added 2 days later: Apparently I’m not alone in my feelings about Facebook. Plenty of folks are concerned about what Facebook is becoming. This is an example among many.
I went ahead and did it, but then I have two Facebook accounts,one for me, one for the show. I let them do the one for the show, not my personal.
Facebook kind of sucks, but it does get the word out about the shows so I thought it was worth it.
Mike
Wow! The argument from them is that they’re doing you a favor by linking you automatically to your passions. Facebook will claim ignorance. In reality, what this does is take private information about yourself and makes it open to those that run the pages. The next step is auto-fan-paging you to the brands you mention in status updates.
Horrendous.
I saw this link today and looked for you – but you’d already gone.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-further-reduces-control-over-personal-information
I just quit facebook today, too! I’m so sick of making them money (not by way of joining and purchasing things from apps or ads, anyway) but just by virtue of being there and having available demographic data to sell and a constant change of privacy policies. I didn’t even know they were doing what you just described!
I use Facebook, but only as a connection method, and have not put anything aside from basics required on it. I would miss it if I actually used it, but it is merely a conduit. No apps, no games, and heck no! no farmville or pirate clan or whatever that they have. Would miss it not much, all my friends on FB have plain vanilla email, which is good enough to keep in touch with them or I can use pidgeon for IM instead.
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