It's 2011, and we trust you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This is our first post of 2011 and for it we will be re-visiting a hoax that spread through Facebook virally back in 2010 but has reappeared this year.
If anyone has heard of Facebook’s Instant Personalisation, it’s a feature Facebook launched last year that allows select external websites to obtain basic information about a Facebook user before they visit that site. This is so when a Facebook user visits such a site, it is instantly personalised for them – meaning it will display their name and profile picture.
Whilst the movement caused minor controversy from hardcore privacy activists, the feature really wasn’t that controversial since the information given and displayed on these sites was only very basic information available to anybody, regardless if they were a friend or not.
However like any change Facebook makes regarding the sharing of information, alarmist messages like the one below began to circulate between Facebook friends warning users in an overly alarmist way, implying this was some sort of massive invasion of privacy.
ATTENTION ALL FB USERS----VERY IMPORTANT For those of you that didnt see this per CNN news....facebook will be allowing our profile pics on the web..please do this now.... GO TO Account, Click on Privacy Settings >>Applications and Websites>> UNCLICK Instant Personalization...and PLEASE TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS!!!
However these over-the-top messages, which were designed to panic Facebook users, were loosely based on truth, since Facebook users are automatically opted out of the Instant Personalisation feature. The feature, now available on 7 sites partnered with Facebook (including Yelp, Rotten Tomatoes and TripAdvisor) has only the ability to share information that you have already made public with everyone, and since you have to explicitly opt-IN to the service, there is no need to pass on the many deceptive messages floating around Facebook about Instant Personalisation.
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