Do Not Eat: Facebook Now Prominently Warns New Users About the Perils of Using Facebook

Of all the privacy problems experienced on all the social media platforms, Facebook stands out by far as one of the worst offenders. If they aren’t updating privacy settings to forcibly opt-in users to terrible schemes, they’re keeping data on users long after it’s been deleted. That’s not even mentioning the various ways in which users open themselves up to exploitation with their privacy settings in relation to other users. Thanks to a privacy information update, however, the preteens of the world might just stop unintentionally sharing embarrassing photos with the world.

Here’s the relevant bit that outlines the update from Facebook’s post on the matter:

New users will now receive specific education on the topics below as they are signing up for an account:

• Default settings
• Selecting an audience for information shared on Timeline
• Access to their data
• How they interact with applications, games, and websites
• How ads works on the site
• Tagging people and things
• Finding friends on Facebook through search and contact importers

Not that this helps the millions of users already sharing and whatnot to their heart’s content, but improving the understanding of the site’s privacy settings on sign-up is certainly a good thing.

These changes come thanks in part to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner’s Office, which oversees Facebook’s operations outside Canada and the United States. One way of reading that is to say that Facebook’s been under increased pressure from the global community to improve the privacy education of their users. Regardless of the reason, fewer folks posting horrifyingly personal details and pictures is a good thing for all. Well, except Failbook.

(Facebook via Ars Technica, reddit)

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