70% of people just fine with how much info is on Facebook
Worried about how much of your dirt is out there on Facebook? Well, according to a new poll, you’re in the minority.
Seventy percent of U.S.-based Facebook users polled in a recent survey said they were comfortable with the personal information they have on the site. Twenty-three percent said they were uncomfortable, and seven percent had “no opinion.”
Facebook is such a hot topic that extra caution is needed when evaluating third-party information about the site, but this data seems legit: The survey (PDF) was conducted last week via telephone across 1,174 registered voters by Poll Position, the polling firm run by former CNN executive Eason Jordan.
Not surprisingly, the poll showed young people were more comfortable with their Facebook personas than older people. In the 18- to 29-year-old age group, 81 percent of Facebook users said they were OK with the personal information they provide on the site; in the 65 and older category, only 50 percent said they felt comfortable with it.
In some respects, the poll is surprising. After all, Facebook has come under fire from the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly being duplicitous with users about how their information has historically been handled on the social networking site. In response, Facebook has made a series of recent feature additions aimed at making it easier for users to understand how much of their data is visible on Facebook and to whom, so that could play a part in the current public opinion. But the poll also makes sense on a basic level: Facebook probably wouldn’t be as widely used as it is — more than 800 million users at the moment — if all those people were uncomfortable with sharing on the site.
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Um, the fact that people have almost complete control of the information related to themselves that appears on Facebook, I would assume 99% would “be just fine”.
First, most people don’t realize how much info they have exposed publicly on Facebook. So to ask them if they’re comfortable with their exposure as they understand it is one thing. Second, The fact that 23% said they were “uncomfortable” with info they ostensibly have control over is the real story here.
Another example of a survey poorly constructed and even more poorly interpreted :(
There are many things an active user can do to protect themselves on Facebook. It’s all about implementing what you know and putting into action the basic tips, so that you’re safe throughout the whole time you’re online.
One of the things a person can do is to keep Facebook accounts closed or private.
Regardless of the ethics of Facebook and its privacy controls, a good rule for users of the site is that if it’s on Facebook, you should be comfortable with the same information being public. This isn’t to say that users shouldn’t have control over their data, just that they should be careful of what they post, even when they believe it to be private.
I was assuming the privacy issues Facebook violated weren’t a real issue anymore. Even the typically clueless mainstream media has caught on that FB is no longer the ‘friends-only’ environment it once was. It wasn’t that long ago FB deceived its users with false PR and that continuously changing, carefully engineered puzzle of Preference settings, but now it’s pretty rare to find anyone on FB who isn’t aware that ANY information they add may or may not private. So a 70% share doesn’t seem to be notable.
off course they are, they are the ones that put it there. there 800 millions FB users. you really think YOU are the one they are after? take the blue pill
http://theregjoe.blogspot.com/2011/05/take-blue-pill-and-shut-up.html
I definitely believe the majority of folks on Facebook are: 1) Not aware of how publicly available all the information they share is (this *is* under their control); 2) not understanding implications of data shared with third parties or others; 3) not aware of the inherent prevailing issues that make their information available to others. From a marketing standpoint, I’m very interested in the actual statistics — if ever revealed — RE: percentage of deviation from projections (as in veracity of information gathered), comparing marketers’ expectations and the bottomline outcome.