he thinks of other Web activity: when he buy something online, he
expects that the retailer won’t share his credit card information.
So when he realized that the latest iteration of
Facebook’s privacy changes would allow sites he had become a fan of, or
liked, to share that knowledge with other websites, he felt betrayed.
“It’s less about privacy,” said Barbanes, 52, a
As a result, Barbanes said he’s joining a fledging boycott that was started last week asking people to stay off Facebook
Barbanes is one of a growing number of people I’ve
seen who are acting on their frustration with Facebook over the past
few weeks. Facebook, which says it has 400 million active users, did
not respond to my request to talk to them about this story.
“Just because you post something online doesn’t mean it’s for the whole wide world to see,” said Joy, a
Her biggest gripe?
“They also didn’t explain the changes (in a way) that my 18-year-old sister and my grandmother can understand,” said Joy.
“The problem is they never really present what’s happening,” said Leser, who is with the
firm Leser Hunter Taubman Taubman. “How about, ‘Hey, we’re a free
service, but this is how we use your information to sell ads — that’s
how we make money.”
I printed out Facebook’s privacy policy: it’s five,
single-space pages of type that’s at least half the size of regular
newspaper characters.
As for Joy, it’s too late. She plans to delete her Facebook account after
“I don’t want to have anything to do with any website that is closing off the Internet the way Facebook is,” she said.
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(c) 2010, The Miami Herald.
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