Facebook Is Trying to Be Less Creepy
For the second time in two weeks, Facebook has made a concerted effort to be Less creepy
Exhibit A: The company's decision last week to make the default for new users "friends" instead of public. Exhibit B: On Tuesday, Facebook began downplaying passive updates from third party apps. That means there will be fewer instances of updates such as, "Todd is listening to the Starland Vocal Band on Spotify" clogging up your News Feed
As enhancements go, these are pretty mi**r — really mi**r, actually. In the first instance, Facebook could have made much bigger strides against creepiness if it made the friends setting the default for everyone and **tified them of this. Changing the setting for new users is a tacit ack**wledgment that such newbies (who are these people just signing up, anyway?) never **ticed their default settings — so Facebook was, in effect, taking advantage of their naiveté. Read more...