

Proposed privacy control UI for Facebook - hamstersoup
http://youropenbook.org/proposal

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timdorr
I disagree with having a full-time UI element in place for a setting (well,
series of settings) that should only have to be updated once. Certain things
you can't retroactively go back and change (Example: another user shares a
link you posted that's offensive to your new boss) or don't have immediate
effect (Ex: search engine results), which this UI item might give the
impression of having that kind of control. It also doesn't handle edge cases
well (Ex: wanting contact info in the open, but not photo tags), instead
covering them with blanket groupings and encourages users to be more ignorant
of the intricacies of privacy really.

I think what Facebook should have done already is use one of their blue
announcement boxes on the home page to notify users of their default
"Everybody" status if they have it turned on and direct them to the privacy
settings to adjust them.

Of course, I have everything set as openly as possible, so I really don't care
anyways.

~~~
hamstersoup
The slider serves as a simple privacy reminder on your home page. It only
takes a few moments at youropenbook.org to make it clear that many people
could benefit from such a reminder.

It's not the intention that you would interact with the slider frequently. If
you drag it to a different setting a dialog box would popup and explain
exactly what the consequences would be.

Most people would be happy with simple privacy settings, and there's still a
customize link for the power user.

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benofsky
Nice idea, but there's a lot less money in a closed facebook than an open one.
It will never happen. The portion of users that are A. aware of the privacy
problems and B. care at all is so so small, probably less than 1%, that
Zuckerburg couldn't care less.

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wdewind
facebook doing privacy UI is like philip morris doing anti-smoking ads. they
hire the best minds, and have them use their skills to make things
intentionally fail (ads, UI controls). what facebook calls "highly granular"
control is a failure of UI thinking: fewer, more powerful and more simple
options are what you get from good UI thinking. it's NEVER about giving the
user as many options as you can, the entire point of UI design is to remove
the number of choices a user has without removing the amount of things they
can do.

this goes a long way towards that for sure, but it's just not in fb's self
interest.

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malloreon
It is in Facebook's best interest to keep privacy controls as complex as
possible, and defaulted to openness.

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iamdave
Actually, Facebook used to have privacy sliders exactly like this back in late
2007, early 2008. I think there were only three of them: profile, user info
and pages.

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hamstersoup
I had forgotten the sliders:
[http://www.designaesthetic.com/2007/07/17/facebooks-
ridiculo...](http://www.designaesthetic.com/2007/07/17/facebooks-ridiculously-
cool-story-types-preferences-widget/)

I don't think they were a privacy control, just a (complex) way of mixing your
newsfeed.

