Facebook may be trying to bend over backwards to improve its privacy settings but the ‘dizzying’ number of changes have sparked ‘privacy fatigue’ among many of the social media site’s users.
That is according to a new study by Which? Computing, which shows almost half (48%) of those questioned confessed they had failed to keep track of all the security changes that had been introduced. Almost a fifth (19%) said they had never altered their privacy settings.
Facebook’s privacy policy has long been a bone of contention with consumers and authorities alike. The company is currently under investigation after claims that it kept hold of personal data long after users had closed their accounts. Meanwhile in Germany – the country with one of the most stringent data protection regimes in the world – the company has been accused of using cookies to track users, even though they have quit the site.
Despite concerns about the amount of personal information being published by users of the website, many users seem unperturbed, the Which? report suggested. Although Facebook has introduced a raft of changes over the past two years, respondents had on average changed their privacy settings just twice.
Which? scientific policy adviser Rob Reid said: “Many Facebook users have never changed their privacy settings and those who have do it far less often than Facebook makes changes.
“This may reflect a disregard or lack of awareness for privacy or, more worryingly, privacy fatigue stimulated by the dizzying number of changes.”
