Facebook and the Politics of Privacy

When social networking website Facebook changed on September 5 to make it easier for users to keep track of their online friends, the company received a wave of unanticipated protest. Facebook, the web's second most popular social networking site with over 9 million users, added a "news feed" feature that automatically alerted users when their friends made changes to their online profiles. But many users called the new feature an invasion of privacy, saying it promoted stalking.

The controversy highlighted the emerging debate over what sort of privacy people should expect from social networking sites, where users willingly post personal information and photos. "When people belong to social networking sites, they really are putting up news for the world to see," says the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Rebecca Jeschke. "It a little odd on one level to complain that people can see the changes that you made when you changed them so that the world could see them." Nonetheless, Jeschke calls Faceboook's News Feed "a functional change to privacy" because of how it made information so easily accessible. As social networking scholar and blogger Danah Boyd notes, "privacy is an experience that people have, not a state of data....When people feel exposed or invaded, there's a privacy issue."

Over 700,000 Facebook users agreed, joining a Facebook group called
Students Against Facebook News Feed, which doubled as a petition asking the
site to change the new feature. One of those users was Igor Hiller, an
incoming University of California-Santa Barbara freshman who planned a
protest outside Facebook's headquarters. Although the protest was cancelled
after Facebook gave users the ability to opt out of the
feature, Hiller and other previously anonymous users surfaced as
spokespeople for privacy rights on social networking sites. MotherJones.com
called him at his parents' home in Palo Alto, CA.

MotherJones.com: What was the motivation behind the protest you
planned?

Igor Hiller: Well, it was Tuesday morning, September 5, and I was
actually online on Facebook at 12:01 when they rolled out these new features
of theirs, called News Feed and Mini-Feed. Essentially, every sort of move
that you did on Facebook, whether it be commenting on somebody's picture, or
joining or leaving a group, or joining or leaving an event, or any update
that you did to your profile, this information would be sent to all of your
contacts, alongside a timestamp saying exactly what time you did that, and
that also includes relationship status. If perhaps you are now no longer in
a relationship, you're single, well, that will be forwarded to all your
contacts as well, along with the exact time of your breakup.

MJ.com: So it's a privacy issue?

IH: It is. And not only is it a privacy issue, it made people
feel so uncomfortable.

MJ.com: A lot of people are going to say it's strange to complain
that a site where many people are posting their interests, age, picture,
dorm room numbers, friends, hobbies, blog, and other things is violating
their privacy in some way.

IH: Well, one way you can look at that is: Say that my parent's
phone number is listed in the yellow pages, and if anyone wants to, they can
go and look it up. But who would feel comfortable with, maybe when we move,
having that new number forwarded to all of our contacts? Before News Feed,
yes, you could see the profile, and you could see the pictures, and you
could see the comments, and you could see the relationship status, but the
users felt that it was just for people who cared, and who wanted to know.
But now, all of this information was thrown down the throats of everyone,
and it was very strange.

MJ.com: So what was your role in protesting Facebook's
changes?

IH: Well, I saw this group, and I saw it growing exponentially, at
a ridiculous rate. I mean, within two days they had more than 600,000
members in this group. And I joined it as well, and I thought that while
what they were doing was really good - they were protesting online - but I
live within just a few miles of Facebook's headquarters. So I figured,
"Let's do a protest right at their headquarters. What better way to get
heard?"

MJ.com: But you ended up canceling that protest.

IH: We cancelled it a few days before, because as soon as we
started organizing it, and it got media attention, the next morning at
around 2:48, Facebook made significant changes to their News Feed and
Mini-Feed functions. So now, if you don't want all of your actions to be
forwarded to your contacts, well, you can just opt yourself out of News
Feed, and then they don't see anything that you're doing.

MJ.com: Why do you think that Facebook made that change so
quickly?

IH: I think they were just really afraid of it snowballing, and I
think they were just taken aback. You know, our generation isn't really
known for protesting. This is more our parents, and now all of a sudden, we
were just getting up in arms about this, and they were scared. I mean, they
had about 10 percent of their users in this group saying that they didn't
like what was going on.

MJ.com: In less than a week, more than 700,000 people joined this
group, but commentators have noted that other Facebook groups devoted to
more "traditional" political causes haven't attracted nearly as many users.
Why?

IH: I think that it was so...relevant, or tangible. I'm not
implying that this Facebook privacy issue is more important than, you know,
fighting AIDS, or for peace, or anything like that, but when you are
fighting for an issue like AIDS or against the war in Iraq, these are sort
of intangibles. It's less likely that you've been directly affected by the
war in Iraq. Whereas this Facebook thing, every single time you logged on,
it reminded you of this thing, News Feed, that you hated. And it directly
affected young people's lives every single day when they logged on.

MJ.com: Are there other privacy issues with Facebook, and social
networking sites in general? Is that something you're interested in working
on?

IH: Well, I mean, I guess it's not perfect. People can still, if
they want to, stalk someone. But it's not something that I think I will be
protesting I mean, to have it be perfect. How perfect can a site be for
protecting people's privacy? I mean, you're posting information online.
Already you're opening yourself up. [Laughs].

MJ.com: As a result of this whole issue, have you changed any of
the settings on your own Facebook profile?

IH: I've certainly opted myself out of News Feed. That's the
first thing I did as soon as they made the changes. But I've kept most of
the others because I like how it is - I want people at Santa Barbara to be
able to see my profile because it's about making new friends and it's about
social networking. And so I think that's a good idea. I don't think that
the students of Santa Barbara will be stalking me. But if I do ever feel
uncomfortable with it, I can opt myself out.

MJ.com: In your opinion, what would a social networking site need
to do to protect users' privacy?

IH: Well, first, it needs to listen to them, and that's something
that Facebook learned quite quickly. It needs to listen to what they're
comfortable with and what they're uncomfortable with. I think it needs to
make sure that the information that people post on its site is seen by the
people that the users want to see it. If that's not happening, I think
that's when people start getting up in arms.

MJ.com: So, what's next for you in terms of working on privacy
issues?

IH: I'll be watching in the next few weeks to see what Facebook
does with opening themselves up to the public. [Note: This week, Facebook
confirmed that
it will soon allow anyone to join the site, not just people with an email
ending in .edu, as had previously been its policy.] This definitely will
open up new privacy issues. Facebook always prided itself on being this
student network, and now it's for everyone. We'll see what sort of privacy
issues this opens up.