According to The Conversation, there is an upcoming shift of Facebook’s approach to its user privacy. This quote from Mark Zuckerberg clarifies the position of the company:
Over the last 15 years, Facebook and Instagram have helped people connect with friends, communities, and interests in the digital equivalent of a town square. But people increasingly also want to connect privately in the digital equivalent of the living room.
While the news has been (cautiously) saluted as an improvement of Facebook’s attitude towards the core of its business, actually the proposed cure is worse than the disease.
If, as Zuckerberg says, Facebook is going to move from a public square to a living room, this actually weakens the meaning of privacy because:
1 – it sends the message that privacy equals secrecy, while the notion of privacy is far wider,
2 – if everything is private, nothing is private. By not making
distinction between the intimate sphere and the public space, Facebook is
turning people into faceless being.
3 – Furthermore, by enhancing the “private ring” notion, people will lose the main role of a social network (in the sociological meaning of the word): challenging our individual and assumptions, become accustomed to diversity.