[citation][nom]santeana[/nom]No they didn't. They offered up a choice when I logged in and asked whether I wanted to use the new default settings or us my old settings. I chose the old ones and everything is exactly how I left it.Now, I'm not a 100% on this part, but if I'm not mistaken, they changed it to offer more control. They slacked the defaults back a bit because people before were complaining that no one could find them on FB in the search. So they stopped those complaints, only to start up a whole new slew of them.[/citation]
I had a slightly different experience. I was given a selection to keep the old settings or change to the new ones. I did as you did, selected the old settings. And due to this article I decided to check again, and found that there were quite a few settings that were set to "Everyone". I obviously don't share inappropriate information on FB, but I did find it inconvenient as I do like to keep the information I share private within family/friends. And sharing your favorite movies with people make it easier for them to REMEMBER, especially when you have a couple hundred friends.
I personally use FB as I travel a lot and it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family.
As for others who say they do not like FB, everyone has their own choice, but people don't live the same in every part of the world. I know many Asians who use the service and they find it to be more than just a hobby.
As an American, I can understand the problems with privacy, but it does seem that we are reluctant to use technology such as this to improve our relationships. "Ideally" it would be just great to meet all your friends, but if you are trying to stay in contact with friends from your early school years (Middle/High School) as many tend to travel to other cities looking for work, etc...
It can be argued that snail-mail/email/websites can be used instead, but this is an idea to incorporate all of them together. If you choose your friends correctly, you shouldn't care what they post on your FB and who reads it, as they are your friends. If you need serious talk (1-on-1) obviously you wouldn't talk about them in public, but this is the new age and with many people spending countless hours on the internet, shopping, studying, etc... It would seem to follow that we also brought our relationships online.
I understand this post is about privacy, but I thought I would also incorporate some replies to other messages and bring a different point of view to the table about social websites.