It’s certainly been a busy few days for Facebook. After making headlines for acquiring Instagram to the tune of a billion dollars, the social media company is back in the news again for yet another interesting reason. Facebook has now upgraded the “Download Your Information” feature which enables users to download an archive of their entire account history. Pretty nifty, right?
According to Mashable, the feature can be found in Facebook Account Settings and was first introduced back in October 2010. Along with being able to download photos, messages, posts, friend lists and chats, users will now be able to get their previous names, friend requests and IP addresses that they may have logged in from. Information found in USA Today states that Facebook will be rolling out the update in a gradual manner and will be adding more data to it in the near future. They may just want to do that. The company has recently come under fire over how it deals with user information and advertising services. Some individuals believe that it’s too easy to access personal information when it comes to the social media site hence the reason why some may either quit Facebook or simply move to another form of social media. It certainly sheds a new light on Girls Around Me, the iPhone app that took stalking to a new level.
Nevertheless, it does seem as though Facebook is at least trying. The company posted on their Privacy page with details on their new effort. The post stated that more categories of information will be available for download in the future. After all, change can be good. Of course making changes is nothing new for Facebook. The company lifted a few eyebrows last winter after designing Timeline to give their website something of a facelift. With a dozen different apps coming and going, Facebook certainly knows a thing or two about keeping fresh and being trendy.
Still, perhaps the best way to stay trendy is to stay in the know. With users now given the chance to see what they put out there, they should be able to get a better handle on just how much information they’re disclosing. Perhaps some Facebook users should learn to keep some things to themselves.
Sometimes staying trendy means keeping your skeletons in the closet.
– Jaylen C.
Are you happy that Facebook is now giving users a bit more data on their doings? Let us know at our Facebook Page, our Twitter, or by sounding off in the comments below!