Facebook has come along way since it was founded back in 2004. The social networking site now boasts over 40 million active users and over 150,000 new registrations PER DAY. Many articles have been written over privacy concerns on facebook, and tests have been carried out which show people are more than willing to add strangers to their contact list and therefore reveal personal information. However in a lot of cases it’s not even necessary to add the person as a friend.

A quick search around my local network shows that many people have their profiles open to public viewing. A search of my network for males around my age confirms that most have their entire profiles open for viewing. I have found their name what they like, what they dislike what they have been up to this weekend in seconds. I have also found what their interests are their mobile phone number and their email address. A marketers dream! What’s more the person I am viewing has no idea I have been here and probably wouldn’t even link facebook to the fact I had gained their details if I used them to sell.

I can go one better than this. Say I was an affiliate for a company selling a protein shake at discounted prices. A quick advance search on facebook for males in my network who’s interests include going to the gym returns 100’s of results, all with profiles open for my viewing. The vast majority including a email address, and a mobile number. I do not even need to use the site to now contact these individuals about my hot product.

Four days ago facebook opened up searching facility to non registered users with a future plan to allow search engines to view profiles. The extent that people can view a persons profile depends on what their privacy settings are. Looking at the above results it is safe to assume most people will not even bother to look.

Will this be the demise of facebook, in a bid to attract even more people to the service are they forgetting about why people like the site in the first place. Is my wall being covered with posts telling me to buy this product, or view their website going to annoy me enough that I will leave the service for good. Will I be receiving countless number of friend requests from complete strangers. Well for me no,the moment I saw the privacy setting box I chose not to be included in the open profile searching. This article has been written to encourage my fellow facebookers to do the same.

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