Facebook CEO Zuckerberg, declared that the “age of privacy is over”. Yet, when it was reported that users were able to view the ‘live chats’ of their friends, Facebook released a statement which stated the following: “When we received reports of the problem, our engineers promptly diagnosed it and temporarily disabled the chat function.” Read more.
A Tech Crunch blog last month stated that “Facebook will increasingly own social interactions on the web.” Read more. If this is indeed so, then how will this affect the social interactions of individuals on Facebook and the wider web in the future?
There were mixed reviews about this incident. While some persons didn’t seem too bothered, it can be assumed that enough persons did have a problem with it, or it would not have necessitated Facebook turning off ‘live chat’ to fix the problem, and releasing a statement to inform its users of its intent so to do.
So then, with the recent additions by Facebook, to have more user information available across the web, does it mean that privacy is the last frontier that needs to be conquered? Are we too concerned with our privacy? Should a conversation meant for one person be visible to persons other than the intended individual? Truthfully though how much is too much?
This incident may be considered to have given us a glimpse into the future into what things may look like if no one had any privacy and all content was visible at all times to all users. How comfortable does this make you feel? Is it simply a case of if you’re concerned about privacy then don’t use Facebook or the web? Or do you feel you should have the right to use this social media utility and the web and still be in control of your own content?
Until next time…
The Pulse of Social Media 
Privacy really is over. Facebook alone has enough privacy issues to cause damage to anyone who posts their whole life via this social medium. If you don’t want people to find out, then don’t post!
I definitely agree that there are times when there is just way too much information going out via social media platforms. But I gather you are of the view, especially where Facebook is concerned, if you don’t want folks to find out/know about something then don’t put it out there. I can take that point.
I firmly believe though, that an individual’s right to privacy should cease to exist simply because said individual chooses a particular social media platform. I should be able to conduct searches, etc without having to worry about being bombarded by messages simply based on my search.
Do you agree?