First appreciation for providing members enhanced control of their information and then criticized over letting people be dragged into “groups” without their authorization. Just a day after the online social network giant Facebook began letting users form comfy groups at the website, the Internet was crowded with rumblings and murmurs by people who found themselves added to groups without their approval.
Jason Calcanis, renowned technology entrepreneur and blogger, forwarded a complaint via email to Facebook after being “force-joined” to a group called the “North American Man/Boy Love Association” (NAMBLA). He further complained that there is no opt-in, and he has forcefully been made a member of a group that he has no interest in; he then posted the email on his Blog. Editor-in-chief of SearchEngineLand.com, Danny Sullivan had the same complaint; “I found myself added to a group without being asked, and that was worrisome,”
At the launch of ‘Groups’ features on Wednesday, Facebook announced that members can opt-out and by doing so they cannot be signed back without their permission. According to Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook, People can only be made a part of a group by those chosen as “friends” at Facebook. In the matter of Calcanis, a friend formed a NAMBLA group and made everyone aware of the problem with the opt-out application.
Facebook spokesperson Jaime Schopflin said in reply to an AFP query that several social dynamics on Facebook are decided by the people who use it, and members should take extra care in determining their friends and who to add as everyone can’t be trusted. If someone in your friends list is creating problems for you, you can either block them or just delete them from your friends list. Members of a group add friends, so the group grows and people outside the section of friends become a part of that group.
The two other features that were introduced along with Groups are the service allows people to download pictures, video, comments and other digital information they have uploaded to the Facebook, and “dashboard” feature that will let Facebook members see and control what information in their accounts is visible to the people outside the friend’s list.
According to The online rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), this new feature provides people the control over who can access what on their account.
“We greatly appreciate the additional control provided by the newly redesigned Groups feature, which will allow people to more easily share information only with particular subsets of their friends.” EFF attorney Kurt Opsahl wrote in a blog post.