Farhad Manjoo: Don't Blame Facebook

Facebook has born the brunt of criticism about internetprivacy, and the company agreed this week to new privacy controls in a FTC settlement.“But don’t expect Facebook’s deal with the government to turn the site into asafe haven for your private thoughts and photos,” Farhad Manjoo writes atSlate. “At best, then, the ‘privacy controls on Facebook (or Google+, for thatmatter) should be regarded as aspirational, the most optimistic scenario foryour data.Friends only, hopefully.” To a certain extent, Manjoo argues thatFacebook has been unfairly saddled with demands from users who refuse to acceptthat it is essentially a non-private service. “However restrictive your privacycontrols, you should imagine that everything that you post on Facebook will beavailable for public consumption forever.”