一塊地 Piece of Land

Facebook has just changed its design again on 5 Feb 2010, a Friday. I've been busy with school and work these days so haven't found a proper time to review the critics of this new design. However, I would like to quickly post 2 things which I consider FB to reveal a greater control of user's privacy. 

First, status update could be the source of the suggestion/sponsored link:

I posted "the netwar of Burma (Dinitz's) is exciting! nothing in the world is as simple as it seems!" in my status update. And 9 hours later when I logged in FB again I saw the page "Support the Monk's Protest in Burma" at the right side bar of my Web page.

 

Second, the original default "Limted Profile" is moved to a more hidden place:

WHERE IS MY LIMITED PROFILE LIST?? --> When I  click on the 'Friends' category at the left side from Facebook's new homepage, there is no Limited Profile listed. Other lists I created remain there though.  

Therefore, I need to go to the 'account' drop-off list and click 'Edit Friends' (see below). 

**Note that this is a new way of looking for a friend list. In the older version, the friend list was on the upper left next to the Facebook logo. When the link of account setting is moved to the very upper right, according to the Golden Triangle principle (as for Google search's layout), it basically represents a remote area where people easily neglect.   

 

 

Finally, it is in the page after "Edit Friends" where I may found my Limted Profile listed same as the older version. Question: then why does FB hide Limited Profile from the 'friend' category at the left bar of my homepage? 

 

 

Limited Profile is created by Facebook as a friendly suggestion if you want you filter your friends. However, since FB's founder Zuckerberg openly indicated that "the Age of Privacy is Over," I suspect that the original default Limited Proile has been moved out from the new design. I now smell a thread that FB attempts to discourage users from filtering FB friends from this new change. Gradually, FB is developing a digital culture with people's ignorance or negligence of thier online privacy. Does it matter? If you have a second thought be sure that you have read Donah Boyd's recent article about the importance of protecting one's privacy in a seemingly-friendly online community like FB.     

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