The New York Times wrote yesterday about Facebook’s now-working delete your account option.
I can see the inside of the Facebook offices now:
“This is good news for Luddites.”
“When you participate in an online forum, do you go back to it later and remove all of your posts?”
“When you put pictures up on the internet, do you really expect to be able to take all copies away?”
“It sounds a little like the record companies asking for a ‘delete all MP3’s’ button.”
“If you’re concerned about what turns up in Google, change your profile. Why not use your high Google rank to your advantage?”
The problem is that none of those embodies the real issue. I think the Facebook team is a group of really smart, innovative people who really do want to make the site work for us users.
So, Facebook team, here’s what you’ve been missing, just to make sure you’ve got it now:
The problem is that you’re building a non-erasable file on our lives in one single place. Nobody likes knowing that there’s a dossier somewhere about them that they can’t get at.
It’s not about what’s on the internet. Not really. It’s about feeling like we’re in control of our identities.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Mukund Mohan 02.19.08 at 5:18 pm
Reminds me of Scott Mcnealy at Sun - Your privacy is dead already - deal with it. I am still trying to figure out why people want to delete their accounts?
I can understand if its financial information, but facebook account?
Jason Preston 02.19.08 at 7:24 pm
I actually started drafting this post with more or less the same attitude.
But I think it’s less about actual privacy concerns (nothing we do on the internet is private and on some level everybody knows this) and more about perceived control.
Why are so many people concerned about the availability of their profile information? Certainly you’re right, the type of information doesn’t necessarily warrant the kind of anger that some people have.
I think it’s an issue of principle.