Getting Used to Less Privacy

A lot of people are complaining about the new Facebook design. Let's be more frank: A lot of people are WHINING about the new Facebook design. But I'm much less worried about the latest Facebook version than I am worried about what's coming.

And no, this blog post isn't a chain letter about the fact that Facebook is going to start charging for membership...

...This is a REAL change coming to Facebook, and it's going to be called the Timeline. I've included a link to it at the bottom. The video is kind of intriguing, the idea that interested profile viewers can scan back through your online life to see what you've done in the past. It's almost like a virtual autobiography of you that is automatically put together by Facebook. Sounds kind of neat.

But as I glanced down the page, I saw the sample Profile page that Facebook is envisioning, and what scares me is that they're not just planning on pulling data from your Facebook activity, but from what Netflix movies you watch, the Places you've visited that you've shared with the world, the music you've listened to on Spotify, and the places you've been running from Nike, as well (no doubt) as from dozens of other "partners."

As I've read in several places, this compilation of data will be easing very close to the "creepy" edge. How much of our lives do we want visible on Facebook for so called "friends" to see?

But here's something even creepier: Even if you don't enable this Timeline feature of Facebook (my scant research suggests it will at least initially be voluntary), keep in mind that data is being mined about you that COULD allow a company like Facebook to create this data. Even if you don't have a Timeline page, and even if your "friends" (who may not really be your friends) can't see all of this information, there are plenty of corporations (who most definitely are NOT your friends) who'll have access to this wealth of information about you.

It's enough to make me consider deactivating my account.

Learn more about Facebook Timeline here.

P.S. Also, the Timeline page looks very similar to me to what MySapce looks like. This makes me wonder if Facebook has forgotten that it overtook MySpace--at least in part--because of the simplicity of its user interface. By making the user profile page more complex, it's taking a chance that it might make it too hard for grandma and grandpa to figure out, and if that's the case, Mom and Dad might move to a different site so that they can show the kids' photos to grandma and grandpa on a site they can understand.