Charlie Stross on Girls Around Me
I think there is a generational difference in the concept of privacy. And a misunderstanding that the general public "doesn't understand" the privacy controls on Facebook.<p>My 69 year old mother, when she was on Facebook, had her privacy controls to maximum. You couldn't find her on search. She didn't use her real name even! And she was sending me articles by email every other week when Facebook had some privacy breach. So whenever I hear someone say "most people don't understand privacy on Facebook" I call bullshit because my own mother is the counterexample. She's since deleted her account because of privacy concerns.<p>I think kids of today (teens and twenty-somethings) don't care as much. They don't mind telling the world they are at a bar tonight. They add people they don't know as friends. They have 800, 900 Facebook friends. There is no privacy when you have 900 Facebook friends and they know it.<p>All these arguments about stalkers, rapists, and white supremacists are straw men. As another commenter said, you don't NEED an app to find random people. Just use your eyes. A supremacist after Jews? Not hard to find if you know where to look. A rapist looking for women? Not hard to find if you know where to look. This has nothing to do with Facebook.