Why it’s time to close your Facebook account – Update

Last week I posted about some changes to Facebook’s security policy which could lead to your personal information being shared with 3rd party organizations without your consent or knowledge. At that time I mentioned I would be closing my Facebook account and gave a few reasons why. Since then I have closed my account and am happy to report that I have suffered no adverse effects. I have however gotten questions from a number of people regarding my motivations for leaving Facebook. Most of these people mistook my departure from the service as some sort of a rebellion or a ban – a way to get attention from Facebook so that they may change their policy. This however is not the case.

Facebook has over 300 million regular users and if they are not concerned about the privacy and security of their personal information, a small ban of the site will have little to no effect. My call to cancel your account is hoping to shed light on the policy change and allow you to collect all the information needed to make decisions about how you want your personal data being handled. In the end I decided to close my account not to start a “pocket of resistance” but rather because I did not want to entrust my personal information to an organization who makes privacy decisions I do not agree with.

So please, don’t close your Facebook account because I told you to (it’s not like you would anyways). But please do read up on the policy change and check your privacy settings. There is life after Facebook and if you don’t like what you find out about their privacy policies you may consider sharing less personal information or leaving the service completely.