Facebook has been hit by privacy tsunami, since they announced open graph and a lot of new features. Numerous posts have explained how difficult to keep your privacy in Facebook account. New York Times article nailed how difficult to understand and change the privacy settings in Facebook.
If you want to manage privacy settings on Facebook, you may have to go through through 50 settings with about 170 options. It is definitely a good thing to have a number of privacy controls to user. However, it does not need to be complicated. Facebook’s privacy policy is longer than the United States Constitution. It has grown from 1004 words in 2005 to 5830 words in 2010.
Here is another way (pretty, but not so useful) to look at the Facebook’s privacy in 2005 and 2010 using Wordle. Wordle is a fun word cloud that can be created from any text. More frequently used words are prominent in the word cloud.
Word Cloud of Facebook Privacy Policy 2005
A word cloud containing the most frequent 50 words in Facebook privacy statement during 2005.
Word Cloud of Facebook Privacy Policy 2010
A word cloud containing the most frequent 50 words in Facebook privacy statement during 2010.
Facebook Privacy Policy 2005 After Removing Two Most frequent Words
It is very clear that both the word clouds look very similar and are dominated by a couple of non-informative words, like Facebook and information. One way to see whether the lack of privacy is visible in the two word cloud is to remove the two most frequent words and see the clouds.
Facebook Privacy Policy 2010 After Removing Two Most frequent Words
Stretching the Clouds: “Personal” Out and “Share” In
A closer look at the word cloud reflects that the word “personal”, a most frequent word in 2005 is absent in 2010. Similarly, the 2010 cloud has “Share” as a frequently used word, while it is not present in the 2005 cloud.
Related posts:
- Facebook Privacy: An Endangered Species?
- Facebook Privacy Controls Come to Mobile
- Facebook Makes Privacy Control Simple
- MySpace Tries To Make Use of Facebook Bashing
- Seven Privacy Sins of Facebook: FTC Report
- Top FaceBook Apps Reveal Personal Information to Advertising Companies: WSJ reports
- Facebook Hits Half a Billion Mark
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