What the Fuuuuuu-ACEBOOK?

[afuna]

Facebook was initially well-behaved in asking me to transition my privacy settings -- the first time I got the pop-up, I said "later" because I was only popping in to look at something specific. The next time I opened up FB, I didn't get the popup; I was pleased that they weren't being overly naggy about transitioning. At some point, I hopped over to my profile and made sure my privacy settings were being respected and saved my changes.

Earlier today, I got a pop-up asking me to check / transition my privacy settings. I was surprised, but figured "hah, bad programming. They didn't remove the flag when I made my changes manually. OH WELL (but at least they're kind enough not to make assumptions)". I decide to go through the transition process this time, opened it up, and UGH all the radio buttons are set to the settings Facebook wants me to use.

But at least selecting my old settings is easy enough; just need to select the other radio button, which I do for everything. I hit save... Facebook tells me there's an error. Grarr. I hit back and enter, and it only then registers that when I hit back, FB filled it in with the settings they wanted instead of the ones I'd chosen. Argh!

If I didn't need Facebook for work, I would delete it right now. As it is, I'm going through all my settings and locking them down to the most private settings available. On the plus side, this is more private than I would have had them otherwise, because I've just discovered out that if you choose "Customize" from the dropdown, that lets you lock data to only yourself instead of friends/friends of friends.

(I've also just discovered that you cannot hide your gender from being shown, which makes me D: D: D:)

Comments

[lacey]

I'm fairly sick of Facebook for many reason, but this one takes the cake.

Argh.

[sara]

The EFF had a lengthy breakdown of the FB privacy revisions last week.

(I really dislike FB, but yeah, all my aunties and the people I went to grad school with are there. It's not like they have anything like reasonable privacy controls, though. I wouldn't want to live there.)

[raingirl]

In our house we know it as Bookface - which sounds more derogatory out loud than in type.

[domtheknight]

I think you can choose not to specify your gender, though, which then takes it off your profile. IIRC when I did that they were all "you are ambiguous, which of these updates is correct, 'she changed her profile' or 'he changed her profile'" and I just declined to answer that question. So... yeah. Awkward workaround.

[afuna]

Heeee. Works for me, thank you!

[mrklo-olstphn.livejournal.com]

So many people did cried foul with the new settings. FB execs said just dont fill in gender for new users so that you are one step closer to become hidden from google and other search engines.

[afuna]

Any idea how to remove gender from the current one? It kinda stands out because it's one of the only things that's left visible on my profile (and is, as far as I can tell ,the only thing I can't get rid of by removing myself from a group or network or relationship or something)

[mrklo-olstphn.livejournal.com]

sorry i have no fb and just read it that tidbit on a bbc site.

[afuna]

Heheheh, thanks, though!

[the-cynic.livejournal.com]

Home> Profile> Edit my Profile

Then change Male or Female to just "Select Sex:" and save

[afuna]

Aha, thanks! I managed to somehow never find the edit profile page. Now my profile is totally blank; I am pleased.