Facebook loses friends as privacy campaign grows

[babsbunny]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/may/14/facebook-privacy-campaign-delete-account

Type 'How do I ...' into the search engine and one of the first suggestions it comes up with continues: '... delete my Facebook account?'

It's a fitting congruity that the simplest way to gauge Facebook's current woes comes via that other unchallenged behemoth of the internet, Google. Type "How do I ..." into the search engine and one of the first suggestions it comes up with continues: "... delete my Facebook account?" Today it was the ninth top-ranked search term, bringing more than 18m results.

Since it was devised a mere half-dozen years ago by Mark Zuckerberg and three Harvard contemporaries, the social networking site has grown at an astonishing speed, seeing off once-powerful competitors such as Bebo and MySpace. It has also attracted controversies, notably over the issue of a "panic button" for child users.

[Q3JR4]

1. I joined that group.

And I've changed a bunch of stuff on my facebook profile to make it harder for people outside of my circle of friends to track me down. I use a variation of my name, a throw away email address, and no real pictures.

I have friends who do the facebook thing, and I enjoy it too. With the changes I've made, though, I think I can keep outside forces from pointing at the non-virtual me.

Q3JR4.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Not a criticism ... and honest question .....

.... with all that skulduggery, why even bother?

[beyurslf]

3. I am on FB and love it. I am not worried about the privacy issue either.

My boss is my friend on there. I don't rant about work on it.
I don't worry about who can see inappropriate pics because I don't post pics like that on there. Scratch that--I don't take inappropriate pics. :)

[Johonny]

4. If I were worried about what I posted on the internet

being used against me, then I'd never post on the DU ;-)

[tonysam]

5. Same here. I don't have anything worth getting anybody upset over. n/t

[JanMichael]

6. Great. Not on it. nt.

[bemildred]

7. Lie. Lie your ass off. Let them collect lots of fake information. nt

[tblue37]

8. NOT "one of the first" but THE VERY FIRST ONE! nt