This is interesting. Over the weekend I blogged about how Facebook added two fields into the ‘Notifications’ page, without my knowledge, and had switched them on. In layman’s terms, Facebook added two reasons it could send me automated emails.
   I somehow found myself clicking on ‘My Account’, then ‘Notifications’. There were two new fields: (a) ‘Updates about Facebook product news’ and (b) ‘Invitations to participate in research about Facebook’. In both cases, Facebook had switched them on, which means the service could send me emails on these two topics.
   Bear in mind that virtually everything else on that page is switched off. I don’t like getting Facebook notifications as there are too many of them.
   It’s my choice, right? If I disliked this so much, I could switch them off. No need to be a crybaby. So I did, then clicked ‘Save changes’.
   In replying to one of my readers today, I went back to the page to tell her verbatim which two fields were new. And here’s what I found:



Facebook has switched the two fields back to ‘on’ again.
   I was under the impression that Facebook was serious about our privacy and email preferences. Facebook: no means no.
   If you would rather not get emails on these two matters, go into your Facebook settings. But don’t go just once—go twice or even three times to make sure the site “remembers” that you opted out of receiving spam.
   Facebook seems to be a necessary evil as far as I am concerned, such as for class reunions and events—but what motive does it have in annoying its users? Posted by Jack Yan, 01:25  permalink

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