Facebook

I joined Facebook to be closer to my Canadian friends, who switched en masse from blogging to using that tool. I found the site initially very intimidating, as it is not set up in a way that makes sense to my mind, the features and especially the toggles and switches, were hard to find and not very well labeled. But I struggled through so I could be more connected.

And then the applications started bombarding me. Every little quirky thing that someone sent me required the installation of a new application in order to see it, read it, or respond to it. Every one of these apps then had a page that involved sending the results to everyone on my Facebook account unless I could find the (often) small or well-hidden Cancel or Skip button. Even using that, I was finding that a bunch of my stuff still was sent to people in my Facebook list, which frustrated me.

The last straw for me was the recent addition of the "People you might know" feature. This feature looks at my Facebook list and those who are listed as my friends' lists, compares them, and suggests people off of their lists to me that I might know. This is all well and good, I guess, except that I have turned on all of the options I can that do not send my information out to just anyone. Now I find that my info is going out there, spreading farther than I intended or wanted. I didn't mind that those who wanted to could search for me, even with the options I had set, but I didn't want just anyone being able to get a hold of me willy-nilly-- I have "friends" in my past whom I would rather not be contacted by. If, however, those people are friends of people I am friends with, they get my info for free and there is nothing I can do about it.

I contacted Facebook Support on this directly and asked them to point me in the direction of the Off switch. Support responded with the following:

This feature highlights new users who you are likely to know based on their network, work/education information, friends, etc. Since this feature is automatic, it occasionally identifies people that you do not know or do not want to be friends with. Unfortunately, you cannot turn off this feature at this time. I apologize for any inconvenience. Let me know if you have any further questions.

This comes after a recent incident wherein Facebook installed features that similarly sent a bunch of data out that members did not want and it got a bunch of protests over. And an incident wherein Facebook installed some features that allowed businesses to track members purchasing habits and posted them online. And another that gave out identities-- do you see a trend? Facebook has a habit and history of putting in place features and applications that give away its members' identities for free to anyone who wants to join Facebook. It isn't until or unless the members complain that it does something about it or adds a toggle or switch.

So, shortly after receiving that email from Facebook Support, I Deactivated my account. I replied to both the email and the request for a reason why I was deactivating with a succinct and specific reason why: until such time as Facebook amends its policies as a company and offers these features as optional and respects my desire for some amount of privacy within the confines of the application it is enabling, I cannot be a member. In my mind it is that simple.