Yesterday's redesign of Facebook saw some new features added to the students' social networking site. The two new features -- News Feeds and mini-Feeds -- are embedded into user's pages, and they display "news items" about each users' friends. So-and-so joined a group, entered a relationship, posted a blog entry or made a comment in a forum. TechCrunch has a nice run-down. The feed tools basically give the site's users a chance to see what their friends are up to without actually having to go click around on all of their friends' Facebook pages.
It makes communication much easier, so it sounds like an improvement, right? If you think so, hundreds of thousands of Facebook users disagree with you.
As noted by Frank Gruber, many students feel that the new feed tools amount to an invasion of privacy. Facebook users have been revolting against the feed tools in forums and to blogs, calling them "creepy" and "too stalker-esque." There is even a Facebook boycott scheduled for September 12.
This backlash against the all-seeing news aggregation eye raises some curious questions about social networks. It's interesting to note that all of the information displayed in the news feeds is available elsewhere. No private information is being shared. Feeds only notify users' friends about profile updates. Any Facebook user could find all of the news on their own simply by reading their friends' pages and looking for updated information.
It seems that users are rejecting is the idea that their every post on the site is being logged and passed around. The major gripe on the Day Without Facebook boycott blog is that the news feed "damages what privacy was left on Facebook." The author of the blog, who is anonymous, continues, "It is almost impossible now to keep your information to yourself."
People participate in social networking communities because they want to share their lives with one another. They've consciously elected to not keep their information to themselves. But, when it comes to sharing personal data, how much is too much?
[image via TechCrunch]
