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Facebook Privacy Policy: Longer Than the Constitution

Shy people have a lot of clicking to do

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted May 13, 2010 9:17 AM CDT

(Newser) – If you want to understand Facebook's privacy policy, you better have a comfy chair and lots of time on your hands. At 5,830 words, the policy is longer than the US Constitution (a pithy 4,543 words), the New York Times notes. And that's assuming you understand all the legalese; if not, you'll have to turn to the privacy FAQ, which weighs in at over 45,000 words.

Needless to say, the site's privacy settings have gotten a wee bit labyrinthine. Recent changes have made virtually all your information public, unless you opt out. But opting out isn't easy—you'll have to click through more than 50 buttons, choosing from more than 170 options. And even if you go through all of that, Facebook will still share info with advertisers unless you find the further opt-outs hidden in the Facebook Ads settings. And even after all of that, community pages will still share your tastes with the world.

Facebook privacy settings are shown in San Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009.
Facebook privacy settings are shown in San Francisco, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009.   (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote address at a conference in San Francisco,  Wednesday, April 21, 2010.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote address at a conference in San Francisco, Wednesday, April 21, 2010.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 7 comments
shonangreg
May 13, 2010 10:53 PM CDT
My facebook profile says (slightly altered here):
----------------
Hi,
Due to facebook's continuing privacy issues, I'm not accepting any facebook friends. Please email me instead :-)
Greg
name [at]domain [dot] com (munged for newser post)
---------------------
Everything else on my site is info I don't mind the whole world knowing about (elementary school, academic interests, etc.) My facebook profile helps old friends and new to contact me easily. So, I can still use facebook as *I* want, not as Zuckerberg intimates I should be.

And even though I am no one's facebook friend now, I *still* get facebook friend requests -- with no messages attached! Now I don't even have to think of a reason to ignore the requests . . .
ctalbott
May 13, 2010 4:03 PM CDT
I'm glad to know that's where all their time is going, instead of fixing the bugs in their shitty site! -- I'm getting really annoyed at how often FB doesn't send my replies to messages!
Yourself
May 13, 2010 3:34 PM CDT
and that's another reason i killed my account MONTHS ago now.. don't miss it one bit..
 

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