Anytime Facebook announces proposed changes to its Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), there is an uproar among users, pundits and privacy advocates. The latest brouhaha happened on Wednesday.
The item that caught most people’s attention was the fact that Facebook is proposing that users no longer have a vote on changes to the documents referenced above.
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The second, more worrisome change in our opinion is removing the privacy control whereby users can restrict strangers from sending them Facebook messages. Currently, users can allow friends only or friends of friends to send them messages on Facebook. It isn’t exactly clear exactly who will be able to send the messages, but this quote leaves the proposal pretty open-ended:
“New tools for managing your Facebook Messages – replacing the “Who can send you Facebook messages” setting with new filters for managing incoming messages.”
Removing this feature will likely result in more spam and present more potential for abuse.
