Facebook held a press conference on Wednesday of this past week to announce changes and features coming to the platform. Facebook Groups has received a great deal of media attention due to some privacy issues discovered about its functionality. The main problem with Groups is that someone can add you to a group without your approval. Granted, only someone you are friends with can add you to a group, but how many of us have people on our “friends” list that are really nothing more than casual acquaintances? To illustrate this abuse, Mark Zuckerberg was added to a Facebook group about NAMBLA (North American Man Boy Love Association.)

Facebook also announced that the ability to download your personal data will be soon forthcoming. This will allow users to easily download pictures, videos, posts etc. to their hard drive or to store them in a central location in the Cloud.

Another major change is the introduction of a new dashboard called “Apps That You Use.” This dashboard will show all of the applications that you have given access to and when the last time the app accessed your personal information. This will give the user more information on how apps and companies are using their personal information, and will allow users to judge if the access is worth the benefits of using the application. Although this new functionality gives the Facebook user more information, privacy critics are worried that it will confuse some users by adding another layer of complexity in navigating their privacy and safety settings. Until Facebook adopts a strict opt-in model for all features and settings, they will continue to feel the wrath and backlash of privacy advocates.

Other stories we followed this week relating to privacy and safety issues of social networking sites are listed below:

Facebook privacy changes – a missed opportunity?

Facebook’s Big Announcement: By The Numbers

Is your private phone number on Facebook? Probably. And so are your friends’

Scams of the Week

There was one major scam that we covered this week:

Look What happens when father catches daughter on her webcam. No Surveys! Facebook Scam

Other notable Facebook stories we followed:

AVG Anti-Virus Free 2011

Man fined over $1 billion for sending Facebook spam

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