Tags: Facebook, instagram, news

Facebook is proposing to share its user’s personal information with Instagram and visa versa. Some people have raised privacy issues with these ideas. Facebook is at present the largest social networking site and they have recently suffered a recent decrease in their revenues. The large majority of Facebook’s revenue is acquired through advertising on its website. They are seeking avenues that will open channels where Facebook can attract more advertising and thus increase their revenue growth.

Also, Facebook wants to eliminate the privacy setting that users now use to control who can contact them. This may open a door for more spam to its members. Overall, Facebook is looking to loosen the restrictions and control their users have on using the Facebook email system. This is a feature that some members presently enjoy having. Facebook was quoted as saying “they want to share this information between its own service and other businesses and affiliates that Facebook owns to ‘help provide, understand, and improve our services and their own services.” (Huffington Post, 11/25/2012)

Facebook is also proposing a change to their present voting system needed to change policies. A spokesman for Facebook shared their present voting process has not proved to be sufficient to meet changing goals. Presently, voting on a change in policies and terms of service has to be triggered by a specific number of comments on issues of interest. Following the comments there has to be a thirty percent of members voting favorably for changes to go into effect. Apparently, in the past the number of participating voting members was not significant enough to make changes. Facebook wants to eliminate it present procedure and establish new guidelines for the procedure of changing its policies.

Several privacy advocates are questioning the new risks that may result for users of web services from the changes the “unified profiles” may cause. There have been questions raised among advocates as to whether these changes will make users more susceptible to hackers and identity thefts. Some of the same concerns arose when Google recently changed their policies with their users profiles.