Unless you have been living under a rock this week, you probably have heard and read enough about a new complaint submitted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and 14 other consumer advocacy organizations. The complaint asks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Facebook and “enjoin its unfair and deceptive business practices, and require Facebook to protect the privacy of Facebook users.”  Seriously? Whoever claimed that Facebook is about privacy? If you are concerned about your privacy on Facebook, you are probably posting information you should not be posting.

Déjà vu.

We have had a similar discussion half a year ago when Facebook messed with its privacy policy and the EPIC filed a FTC complaint with ten other privacy advocates. Back then, it was about Facebook’s privacy transition tool” that recommends public sharing – sharing with anyone on the Internet – by default. By now, it is no secret anymore that Facebook isn’t so happy that we don’t share so much content, especially status messages and photos with the public. Public content is just worth much more than private content and in the end, Facebook is a business and it will squeeze as many dollars out of its users as it can. Microsoft does it. GM does it. Google does it and Facebook does it, too.

Five months later, we have another FTC complaint by EPIC and 14 followers. And I am scratching my head over this one even more than over the first one. You can read all 155 paragraphs of the complaint in their entirety here, but here is what matters. Again, EPIC has a problem with Facebook’s privacy policies and accuse the site of unfair and deceptive trade practices that “violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook’s own representations.” At the very core of the complaint are the “Instant Personalization” feature, the inability of Facebook users to make the ‘Likes and Interests’ section of their profile private; and that Facebook discloses user profile information even if a user chooses to keep that information private.

EPIC now asks the FTC to

Compel Facebook to restore its previous privacy settings allowing users to choose whether to link and publicly disclose personal information, including name, current city, friends, employment information, educational information, and music, film, television, and literature preferences;

Compel Facebook to restore its previous requirement that developers retain user information for no more than 24 hours;

Compel Facebook to make its data collection practices clearer and more comprehensible and to give Facebook users meaningful control over personal information provided by Facebook to advertisers and developers; and

Provide such other relief as the Commission finds necessary and appropriate.

There are plenty of people out there who predict trouble in Facebook land and they do have a point: It is a very deceptive way to increase the content that is published and made available on Facebook (and to the rest of the Internet) – at the expense of those who don’t care to read the privacy policy or simply do not understand the policy’s impact.

But let’s apply some common sense here. Who really cares about privacy on Facebook? Isn’t Facebook exactly the opposite of the definition of privacy? And if you are concerned that some of your information posted on Facebook could be seen by the wrong pair of eyes, you probably should not post such information in the first place and not blame Facebook for monetizing it.

Does Privacy Matter?

Seriously, does it? Given the massive impact Facebook has on our lives – according to Alexa.com, it is the Internet’s second most visited web site worldwide – any changes potentially to its privacy should matter to you. Especially if Facebook modifies its privacy options, defaults and recommendations. But I wonder: Do you really (have to) care?

Your answer may depend on why you are using Facebook. If you are publishing information that could hurt you in the future, well, then you should know that you are playing with fire anyway and that a single mouse click could ruin your professional and/or private life.

If you are among this group of Facebook users, you should care and you may want to have a close look at those new privacy options, you should invest some time understanding the changes and you certainly should follow EPIC and its friends. But if you post general notes and general pictures, there was no reason to worry in the past and there is no reason to worry now.

What Goes Around Comes Around

I have had my fair share of Facebook privacy experiences, which usually tend to be of rather negative nature. During a particularly emotional private period of my life that involved my former spouse, I repeatedly was emailed with notes like “have you read what was posted about you …” No, I had not read those notes, but I surely received them via friends.

Information you post about yourself and that may affect others almost certainly will also reach those people you intend to avoid. Even if you block users, know that screenshots of your profile page with status messages and pictures can travel far. Believing that you can block others from seeing your profile page and block others from getting access to your status messages, personal information and pictures is rather naïve and you may need some tutoring in Internet privacy or lack thereof anyway.

In my own case, every single bit of privately posted information was unearthed through a legal request of the documents directly from Facebook. So, if I can get access to such information, be sure that your employer or any angry spouse can as well.

Facebook is everything but private

In the end, it comes down to common sense. Know why you are using Facebook and for what purpose. Know that your posted information is potentially public information whether you like it or not. Know that your pictures are most likely open for anyone to see, if you do not configure them otherwise. Also know that legal battles may prompt your employer or anyone else who believes your Facebook posts could reveal certain information to ask Facebook for a release of your posts. Know the potential impact, especially if you post information of questionable nature. Facebook is not the place to share private information with the world. Common sense.

But then, we also know that Facebook is not modeled to be a tool to protect your privacy. Aren’t we all on there to be open about our lives, at least to those we care about? And how often have we heard about privacy breaches in which malicious users gained access to the private data of thousands of credit card owners? If you post data on the Internet, it is potentially vulnerable and accessible – and on Facebook we apparently deal with very personal information.

So if you are worried about Facebook privacy, don’t post information that could create a problem for you if it reaches the wrong people. Let’s be realistic: If you complain about privacy on Facebook, you have an entirely different problem.

Deception

Of course, the allegation of deception is valid. There is a new feature called instant personalization, which enables other websites to access your likes or dislikes from your Facebook pages and personalize your profile elsewhere. Facebook says that you can block instant personalization if you do not want to use the new feature. However, even if you choose to opt out, Facebook says that your information can still be “disclosed to third-party sites through the user’s friends who have not disabled Instant Personalization.” To entirely disable the feature, have to visit the Facebook page for every Instant Personalization site and click the “Block application” link.

Facebook may go a bit far here. But there is a simple solution: Don’t publish information you don’t want to be public.

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