Just me and my Facebook Data Double

It has been a while since I blogged about Facebook, but when my room mate texted me to ask me to check her feed for private messages, a few things bubbled out that are worth sharing.

The very first thing I thought when I heard about the alleged privacy breach was, “What a great idea for a hack.” Second was, “I guess this should be a lesson to delete all compromising messages.” Until my room mate reminded me that you can’t actually delete inbox messages on Facebook, and have them disappear from Facebook forever. So then I started thinking about the notions of “privacy” and “user-controlled data”…

I have written about the Facebook Data Double before, something I described as “the quantified self; the physical and conceptual self translated into pure information… bits and bytes of code expressed as profile pictures, demographic info, your likes and dislikes, your cultural preferences, the people you associate with, etc., etc… ” back in 2008. That was back before the Terms and Conditions were called the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, and was when the Data Use Policy was referred to as the Privacy Policy. The name changes of both contracts reflected the substantive changes within them over the past 4 years, as the platform opened up and became more public and integrated.

But I digress…

So I, as a Facebook User, agree to both the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Data Use Policy when I have an active (or deactive) account with Facebook. I *must* give Facebook my name, email address, birthday and gender… These bits of information are the foundation of my Facebook Data Double. All other information, in whatever form it takes (text, links, photos, videos) I volunteer to give to Facebook, and have complete control over who gets to see it.

As a Facebook User, I own all of the information I post on Facebook… however in that I also must grant Facebook permission to distribute and use that information in a variety of ways. If I delete pieces of my information, it may be held up to 90 days in databases, however it does disappear if my friends haven’t shared it with others… because once they share it, it kind of becomes their information… and part of their Facebook Data Double.

This is where we run into trouble with the inbox message issue. If I send a message to someone, I may be able to delete it from my inbox, but unless they have also, it will remain on Facebook until they do as well.

What is interesting is that throughout the whole Statement and Data Use Policy, there is not one mention about the status of Facebook inbox messages. Surely if this content was truly mine to own, I could delete it from Facebook forever if I chose to. But I am not able to delete Facebook inbox messages on my own. I alone can only archive my messages and delete them from my message stream. Even if I took the drastic measure of killing off my Facebook Data Double, and deleted my profile, the words in my message would remain, only as those of a deleted user. But I suppose this is how email works in general; an email sent to another individual is no longer a private piece of information controlled by the user and creator.

My Facebook Data Double is a representation of me… it is my virtual identity. But I must never forget that while it is me that chooses to create and form and adapt this virtual identity through what information to share with my friends… all the other Facebook Data Doubles out there… I must share it with Facebook, a publicly-traded, billion dollar American corporation, first. Therefore the notion of “privacy” on Facebook of any kind is completely absurd. Remember, Facebook doesn’t have a Privacy Policy anymore… it has a Data Use Policy, which it calls it’s privacy policy.

Not being able to fully delete old private messages on Facebook without getting the receiver to delete it as well, is an example of how little control we really have over our Facebook Data Doubles once they’ve been activated.

But in the end, if I am truly concerned about privacy and being able to completely control my Facebook Data Double, the only recourse I have is to commit Facebook suicide… well that or just don’t use Facebook to convey or share sensitive information. For the most part I have been choosing to do the latter, as right now the thought of deleting my Facebook profile causes a slight sense of anxiety within me… which is probably one more reason why I should seriously consider doing it!

Because ultimately my virtual identity is only a representation, a shadow of myself… and I would continue to exist even my Facebook Data Double didn’t… much in the same way the tree that falls alone in the forest exists, and makes a sound that no one is around to hear.

How to maximize Facebook privacy options…

The phrase “Facebook Privacy” has a couple of layers that I’m going to try and deconstruct.

The first, and the more oxymoronic layer has to do with the data-whoring that occurs between Facebook and it’s partners. First, know that all of the information you contribute to your own Facebook profile, becomes the property of Facebook. Second, know that Facebook shares this information with anyone (or any corporate entity) that is a third-party partner. Unfortuneately, a complete list of Facebook’s third-party partners is unavailable, but sometimes you can get hints through the “sponsored polls” that sometimes pop up on the mini-feed. Third, know that Facebook direct advertises based on your digital demographics. And Fourth, know that everytime you add an application, you are sharing all your Facebook profile information with those third-party developers. Sometimes these apps are created by existing and reputable websites… sometimes, these apps are created by “Joe” or “Brian” or “Sally”… and what they are doing with your Facebook profile information is unknown.

Not only is the information and content you upload part of this shared data, but also the interaction that occurs between the profiles… how active a user you are, who your connections are with, how many groups you are a member of, how often you look at your ex-boyfriend’s profile… all the information that shows up on your mini-feed which tracks and records your movement on Facebook.

As a user, at this level, there is really little you can do to protect your privacy… Though you could, I suppose, enter in all false information, friend strangers, and completely misrepresent yourself and your interests… but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a Facebook account now doesn’t it?

Most people don’t really care about the protection of this type of data. In this way, “privacy” is really just a word with no real meaning… or rather, the word is defined by Facebook in terms of who is and isn’t allowed access to the data.

However, I’ve heard a number of stories from people who are very concerned about the other layer of Facebook privacy. That is, the information they can keep private from other users. The biggest example of this being in the realm of employment… potential employers checking out Facebook profiles and determining hiring based on that profile, and existing employers using Facebook to keep tabs on their employees.

Some people get furious when their privacy is violated by employers, or any individual or institution using Facebook to get insider information on them. Though, it’s difficult for me to understand this, because of course employers, individuals and institutions are going to use all of the resources available to them to protect their own interests… that’s just the way it is. In fact, the whole concept of “Internet privacy” to me is a laughable one.

But, there are ways to put up a line of defence between the virtual representation of your self and anyone checking up on you who doesn’t have Facebook “clearance”. The privacy settings on Facebook are actually quite impressive. And in about 15 minutes you can be sure that all those drunk pictures of you that your friends keep uploading, and the curse words in your status updates, and kept well away from prying eyes.

First of all, ever wonder why you can view some non-friend profiles, but you can view others? The overall profile settings allow you to decide who can and can’t see your full-view profile. If you click on the “Privacy” link along the top of a Facebook page you are taken into the master settings. Click on “profile” and the first drop-down menu allows you to choose between… “all of my networks and all of my friends” (which is ALL of the networks that you are associated with on Facebook and all of your friends) “some of my networks and all of my friends” (which is everyone in your main network, usually your city network, and all of your friends) and “Only my friends” (which means only the people on your friends list can see your profile). The last option is ideal, if you are worried that the contents of your Facebook profile could be accessed and viewed for purposes that it isn’t intended to serve, such as potential employers.

As you scroll down the page, you see you can set this option for all of the little things in your profile, including tagged photos of you and all the individual applications you’ve added like “Human Pets” or “Vampires” or whatever silly quizzes and weirdo things you can do on there. Some privacy options also include “everyone” which means that everyone with an Internet connection can view that aspect of your profile.

The next tab is “Search”… tired of getting friend requests from everyone in your high school who seems to be just searching Facebook using their yearbook? You can make it so that no one can find you in an Facebook search. This option also makes you disappear from other people’s friends lists.

The News Feed privacy options allow you to remove your actions from your own profile mini-feed and the news feed of your friends, so that no one (other than Facebook of course) can track your movements or get alerted when you write on people’s walls or change your profile information.

Now, when you poke or message or send a friend request to someone they can see parts of your profile, but not your whole profile. Which parts of your profile you want them to see is up to you, and can be set in that option.

Now this is all good for keeping your information protected from people who aren’t on your friends list… but what about those people who are on your friends list that you don’t want to delete, but do want to limited the information they can see. For example, you don’t need your mother seeing pictures of you doing shooters off a strippers belly. Or, your boss sends you a friend request and you don’t know whether to accept or not, but think if you don’t accept, they will think you have something to hide… This is where setting up a “Limited Profile” comes in handy.

The Limited Profile option allows you to choose which friends can see your whole profile, or just the parts which are appropriate for your mom, or your employer. If you use Facebook for both personal and professional communication, the limited profile can allow you to fragment your identity into these two parts…

The default settings on the Facebook privacy options are open. So if you haven’t taken the time to go in and change them, you are leaving yourself open to data double misuse or misinterpretation. As a user of these sites, it is important to explore the “privacy” and “terms of service” for them… and unless you do, the only blame to fall if you don’t get that next job because of that subversive group that you joined, or a pic of you partying, falls on your own shoulders.

The Internet and Identity Fragmentation

Or: The long version of why I am deleting my Facebook profile

It has been argued, by people smarter than I, that the human identity, as it exists in its current state, is fragmented due to a variety of forces of our social environment.  Some people say that we are post-modern selves; fragmented, lost, and ruled by a highly advanced capitalist logic.  Some people say that the Internet perpetuates the emergence of a post-modern self which will eventually lead us to a dytopian land that exists somewhere between Oceania and the Brave New World.  Personally, I am uncertain of what the future will hold for the indiviudual identity.  I can see many possibilities and prefer not to be so deterministic.  However, I can see, and rationalize, how the Internet is going to shape that future of the human identity.

It’s hard to decipher the nuances of a concept like identity on a collective level.  Identity is a multitude of things.  And while I could go on and on about the many different ways in which the concept of identity has been interpreted, I would prefer to just discuss the widely accepted psycho-social notion of roles (a la Goffman)

We each exist in a variety of headspaces, as interactors with our environment.  We are shaped and informed by physical things – like hormone levels (moods and personality); how we physically feel (sickness and health); and where we are physically loacted (at home, at school etc); by social things – like education and law and media; and by that final mysterious ingredient of cognition, being and knowing.  As we interact with things in these areas of our lives, we create states for our selves to exist in.  These states are the roles we assume when given the particular mash-up of all of the variances occur in conjuction with aforementioned triggers.

I’ll use myself as an example to try and make this point clearer:

My role as a Woman – the state in which I exist is shaped by the physical traits that make me a woman.  This state is also influenced by social expectations in behaviour and demeanor, and being a woman means that I know woman.

My role as a wife – the state in which I exist due interactions with my physical self (for survival and reproductive purposes), where I am being perceived as being a wife (at a bar, at a family gathering) the social expectations that are assumed when one chooses to be a wife, and that mysterious element of love and bonding.

Get it?  The list (for me) can go on and on… I am a mother, I am a student, I am an employee, I am a writer, I am a theorist, I am a realist, I am an advocate, I am a moderate, I am a radical… Social roles don’t really exist on thier own, as isolated fragmentations of the self, they work with one another towards a unity of me.

Sometimes, though, my roles are not harmonious and balanced.  Sometimes, I have to interact with physical, social and internal roles that conflict with one another.  This has been called Role Strain, and it occurs when demands of two roles need different things, but they are occuring in the same context.  For example, working mothers are often known for suffering from role strain, where their “duties” of the mother role and their “duties” of work often conflict and cause stress for the self.

But role strain can only exist when we, as individuals, are susceptible to being ruled by external forces.  Because if we do, in fact, have pure free will, it is the self that should be negotiating the duties of the role.

But I digress.

Different from role strain, but connected to it all the same is the problem of Role Confusion.  Role confusion is where an individual is put in a situation where they are uncertain of which role they are supposed to play when the possibility of many roles is present.

The Internet, as I see it, can work to minimize the stress of role strain as more and more people use the virtual to negotiate thier identity, as a personally defined set of roles and duties, rather than the externally defined set that comes as a result of social institutions.  I think that it also could work to minimize role confusion, as users can streamline interactions within managed online settings.  This, though, unfortunately works better with detatchment from those real-life things that can cause strain and confusion in the “real-world.”

And now I’m going to rant a bit about Facebook and how all of this relates to why I am deleting my Facebook profile.

While when I first started using Facebook, I was taken in by it.  I loved the idea of having an online venue to “play” with my real-life friends.  Since I was so active on MySpace, I thought I would love it.  But then I started adding (and inviting) people into that “play” area of my life where I exist as another role.  While I wasn’t feeling so much role strain… I was experiencing a lot of role confusion.  And even though there are no personal specific examples I can put my finger on to illustrate what I mean, the role confusion was causing me great anxiety.

I know that this is not a unique experience for me.  I’ve heard of teachers who are one Facebook to “play” have parents of their students send them friend requests… I’ve heard of old friends coming back into lives and messing up stability in relationships… I’ve heard of people being denied jobs and opportunities because of photos and notes and wall-writings.

I may return to Facebook, under a pseudonym, and only add those people that I have a contextual, and real-life social “play” connection to, because ultimately, I think that a social networking site like Facebook is a great idea, and believe that virtual communities can enhance real-life ones… but in the end, I have to agree with my husband Dave, that the coming together of all of these individual communities that I have belonged to in the past and present, is wierd, and unnatural for the current social conditions that we live in today.

http://charlenecroft.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/the-internet-and-identity-fragmentation/