May 31st was the official “Quit Facebook Day” according to quitfacebookday.com. Facebook has been under some intense scrutiny regarding its privacy policies in the last month. According to the site, there were about 35,000 people committed to quitting, but with more than 400 million active users, Facebook had nothing to worry about with the Memorial Day attempt.
Quitfacebookday.com also says “Having peer support helps, but the way to quit Facebook is not to start a group on Facebook about leaving Facebook.” Good point. With that said, I of course went on to check Facebook and there actually is a Facebook page named “May 31: Quit Facebook Day” with over 7,000 members who “like” it. After reading the posts on it is apparent people are following this page just to monitor the movement and have no interest in cancelling their Facebook account.
The media (and several lawmakers) would like Facebook to be more transparent in their privacy practices. We surveyed participants in the L&S Research Panel to see what those locally thought of this hot topic. We found that generally people are not aware of what Facebook is actually doing with their information, and they are not concerned about it right now. It appears the lack of concern can be attributed to users feeling they are in control of what is being shared with others. Not one participant was concerned with their information being shared with marketers, which is the main criticism privacy advocates have had with Facebook. So, users are either unaware of what Facebook has been accused of sharing or are indifferent.
We found that:
- 70% of those surveyed do not feel any differently about Facebook despite increased scrutiny of its privacy policies.
- Only one person on the L&S Research Panel has actually committed to quitting Facebook.
Participants were also asked to describe their Facebook usage. Here are some of my favorite comments…
“I use it to stay in touch with friends. I like that I have myself completely hidden from those that I don’t want to share information with. I don’t like that I have to keep checking my privacy settings.”
“I am a little obsessed with it (Facebook), admitting it is good, right? 
”
“(Facebook helps me) Stay connected to friends and family. I control who sees what information.”
“(Facebook is an) easy way to communicate and receive communication in mass. I do not like a couple of technical details and I think they need to be very careful with change. (Changing Fan to Like was not a good move IMO.)”
“It’s the surest way to reach many people because they check their Facebook account more often than email. I don’t like all the extra games and apps”
“I use Facebook to connect with friends and family that I don’t necessarily get to see that often. I love the fact that we can connect, but don’t like all of the gaming updates and I am concerned that my information (about me and my family) could get out there for anyone to see. If that is the case, I would delete my page.”
Anti-Facebook groups will continue to surface, but for now average users seem content with the privacy policies and continue to enjoy the company’s services.
