by B.J. Tolentino

Created on: September 16, 2010

When talking about privacy (or the invasion thereof), there is nothing more likely to draw a sharper comparison than Facebook and the highly controversial man behind it - Mark Zuckerberg. With Facebook Places' imminent launch in more privacy-conscious Europe (it is already available to IP addresses associated with the US), privacy is a highly combustible issue to Facebook these days.

Facebook Places is Facebook's version of Foursquare. It is a smartphone-based service which inherently has a location sharing feature. Through mobile devices, Facebook users will see which friends are nearby, discover new places through friend's profile. However, these features carry privacy concerns. What happens when I go to potentially embarrassing places? Will people know I'm there simply because I log on to Facebook with my iPhone or Blackberry? These are some of the nagging questions hovering over the heads of Facebook users.

Facebook has to painstakingly highlight the privacy controls for this controversial feature. These are the prominent features of Facebook Places privacy setting:

• By default, check-ins are only visible to friends

• You can further customized settings to broaden the scope or restrict to a few friends

• You can only tag people on your "friends list"

• The only way to check a friend in embarrassing places is to check into the location as well

• You can opt out of getting tag

• You can also remove yourself from any tag (just like in existing photo sharing service)

On the surface, these privacy options seem safe enough. However, a fundamental privacy concerns about Facebook Places is on the issue of default settings. This is because Facebook doesn't explicitly opt you in Places. Just like other Facebook features (those involving privacy settings), you have to manually configure the appropriate privacy concern. Is the answer going to be "Everyone", "Friends of Friends" or just your "Friends only" on each and every privacy concern?

Another privacy concern involves third-party applications. Even if you lock your location sharing data to specific people, third party apps can still access your data when those specific friends log on to these apps. You have to configure the specific privacy setting to do so. Facebook users are virtually on their own to fend off the wolves. Imaginary or real, people have different notions on the issue of privacy on the Internet. 

The issue of privacy will always haunt Facebook; with or without Facebook Places. Mark Zuckerberg aptly said in his bio, "I want to make the world an open space". He simply continues to be cavalier about privacy! He lives and breaths his business direction (at least that's what he wants his detractors to see). You can virtually trace his whereabouts through Facebook Places. The movie "The Social Network" is another timely intrusion to his privacy; he must really be enjoying the sharp symbolism to his real life predicaments.

Facebook needs an "open" location sharing feature like Places in order to be relevant. It won't back down because geo-location is the present and the future of marketing. Google will be battling Facebook on all fronts. Twitter is banking on it. Facebook will enter Europe where upstarts like Foursquare and Gowalla have gone ahead. It will battle local competitors along the way. It will be dominant in its core business model and Facebook Places is simply business as usual.  

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