Mark Zuckerberg has been writing a series of apologetic blog entries trying to appease users who are now getting more and more wary of the social networking site’s privacy. In the last instalment, he writes that though his team has tried to protect its users’ privacy, it has ‘made a bunch of mistakes’ along the way.

I could find out some of the changes made easily. For example, you can control who gets to see your post, the moment you post it. As of this week, Facebook has gone even further: an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). According to the FTC, Facebook was “deceiving consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.” As part of the agreement, Facebook has agreed to institute a new set of privacy controls.

Ever since the Bangalore episode where nearly two million accounts were hacked into and pictures posted on porn websites, I’ve had friends taking off each and every picture that they’ve been tagged in. When I asked them why, they say that Facebook is “not as private as I thought it is.”

This baffles me. Anyone who thinks that Facebook is private baffles me. Facebook is anything but private. Here’s why I think so.

The main function of Facebook is to connect and share stuff. So by nature, it is as un-private as un-private can get. If we’re thinking that way… the very purpose of the Internet is to distribute information. Nothing can be private. During the International Student Welcome Programme, someone from the Metropolitan police was talking to us about safety online. He said, “Every click that you make online can be traced back to you. Even if you delete an embarrassing photo, you’ve just cut your access to it. It is still on the internet.”

Once when a friend of mine put up a particularly embarrassing picture of herself, I took a screen-shot of it, just in case she decided to delete it. This in itself shows just how leaky Facebook is. The photo that you post “just for friends” is now on the Facebook interface throughout the world.. and any of your friends can take a screenshot of it and keep it on for posterity’s sake!

I think it would benefit us greatly if we redefined our expectations about Facebook’s privacy. However closed your privacy settings are, you should always think thrice before posting anything. I know it sounds stupid. All I wanted to do was to post some pictures of my friends working in the classroom. Should I really think about and marinate over it so much?

I think you should. It’s about time we realised just how powerful Facebook is.