Facebook Gets Flak for Places

We certainly felt that it was coming… with Facebook still recovering from all the controversy it got into regarding privacy concerns, now may not have been the best of times to unveil a service like Places.

A feature on Reuters shared that the criticism against Facebook has begun to pour in. One of the first organizations to issue a statement regarding Facebook’s new feature is the ACLU of Northern California, which read in part: “In the world of Facebook Places, ‘no’ is unfortunately not an option. Places allows your friends to tag you when they check in somewhere, and Facebook makes it very easy to say ‘yes’ to allowing your friends to check in for you. But when it comes to opting out of that feature, you are only given a ‘not now’ option. ‘No’ isn’t one of the easy options.”

Brad Shimmim, an analyst at Current Analysis, said: “The fact that it’s turned on by default really ticks me off as a user. Those missteps bother me and show that they really are running a little bit faster than they know how.”

Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for Facebook, defends the social networking site by saying that Places “sets a new standard for user control and privacy protection for location information.” Schnitt pointed out that only a user can initiate a check-in, and that Facebook has received praise from third-party entities regarding Places’ controls, hinting that Facebook Places is safer than other such services that are currently available.

Another analyst – Dan Olds of Gabriel Consulting Group – gave the opinion that the launch of Places may be a way for Facebook to redeem itself as far as protecting its users’ privacy is concerned.