A month and a half ago I wrote a post called “Facebook is a scary beast” and highlighted how despite the flexibility in its API and the (only) apparent openness, it is becoming a huge closed personal data silo. My concerns then are now voiced also by Danah Boyd in her post “confused by Facebook” which I definitely think you should read. Not only that, but Danah also highlights a few security concerns about Facebook’s new public profile option, which is likely bound to piss some people off.

I’m also befuddled by the slippery slope of Facebook. Today, they announced public search listings on Facebook. I’m utterly fascinated by how people talk about Facebook as being more private, more secure than MySpace. By default, people’s FB profiles are only available to their network. Join a City network and your profile is far more open than you realize. Accept the default search listings and you’re findable on Google. The default is far beyond friends-only and locking a FB profile down to friends-only takes dozens of clicks in numerous different locations. Plus, you never can really tell because if you join a new network, everything is by-default open to that network (including your IM and phone number). To make matters weirder, if you install an App, you give the creator access to all of your profile data (no one reads those checkboxes anyhow).

Truth is, a lot of the initial appeal of Facebook is going away - quickly. Applications are cluttering profiles (no, I really don’t want to see more LOLcats or Zombie invitations, thanks), groups and communities are wide-open and now profiles are by default too. Facebook was regarded for a very long time as a closed and private community, but that has changed. When (and how?) will the glorified address book now with a dash of app-chaos regain it’s cool?