I've spent a few days processing the subtle intricacies of Facebook privacy (through my Bitstrips processing, of course!), and I have finally settled on the unwitting culprit: it's the "share" button.
The "share" button is the underlying source of the problem with privacy in Facebook.
The button is right there. And, with a click of the button our information is off and running through the virtual world gone viral. But the button itself isn't the real problem, because share buttons don't share information, people do...lol.
The problem isn't the button itself...the problem is what the share button represents.
If I were having a face to face conversation over tea in someone's home, there wouldn't be a free-floating "share" button looming beneath our words (or the family pictures hanging upon the walls). No, there wouldn't. And, we would not ever share this information without someone's permission.
The problem is that the share button in Facebook gives permission to share what people say and the pics they post without having to ask for their permission. It's an implied permission to share...something that we would never do in real life, yet there it is...the one click permission for guilt-free sharing of other people's information...lol.
It's Facebok...it's what Facebook is...it's what Facebook does.
And, I don't have a problem with what Facebook is OR does, in and of itself. I post information about my life precisely so that friends and family CAN share what I post...lol. But does this implied permission to share extend beyond Facebook? That has been my scruff, of course...that someone published 4 of my pics in a non-Facebook newsletter without even asking me if it were ok. I would have said yes, but that honestly is not the point.
The share button has caused me to reflect deep and hard about how the world has become "trained" by social media that it is somehow alright to share other people's personal information without their permission. And, I don't like what it's doing to human relationships. I also don't like how desensitized I, myself, have become to the use of this great and powerful share button of Oz.
As for me, I will keep my eye on this pervasive free floating share button in the conversations that I have (both in e- and real-world contexts). And, I will be much more cautious about what I post, and who I grant access to view what I post, because I am not in control of how other people use this share button with MY personal information.
