The Facebook News Feed is a strange beast. Upon its release, it was met with an extremely negative reception as members protested their new ‘auto-stalker’, but it has slowly gained acceptance as users learned they could control which stories were sent to the News Feed. Users need only click a small ‘x’ in their own personal ‘mini-feed’, and any stories they don’t want shared will be withheld from their friends’ feeds.
At least, that’s what most people think. Unfortunately, clicking that ‘x’ doesn’t remove your story from the newsfeed sent to your friends – it only removes it from your own profile. This discrepancy has been a rising source of concern for many Facebook users and developers who have unwittingly informed their friends of activites they had ostensibly made private.
Much of the problem stems from what seems to be a poorly worded notification box that appears when a user deletes a story from their own profile. Upon clicking the ‘x’ next a story, a dialog appears that says, “Hiding will remove the story from your Mini-Feed and prevent anyone from seeing it.” The statement seems to indicate that the item is permanently hidden from everyone’s view, but this isn’t the case. It might not show up on your profile, but your friends will still know about it, compliments of their News Feed homepage.
The issue was first raised in a Facebook developer forum last January, and has since led to a number of concerned threads, bug reports, and Facebook groups. A poll created (and paid for) by one developer resulted in a an 85% disapproval rate for this ‘feature’. The developers have known about it for months (at least), yet it persists.
In order to truly keep these notifications away from your friends, you must go into each application’s privacy settings and remove its permission to publish stories to your News Feed. The feature can also be disabled during application installation by unchecking the box that says “Publish stories in my News Feed and Mini-Feed”. Most Facebook users never bother with these options, as they assume that by manipulating their own Mini-Feeds, they are in control of their News Feeds as well.
We’ve contacted Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly for comment.
Hmmm.. strange..
ahhh….Facebook stranger
This is news?
I thought most people knew about it…
If your friends have a considerable number of friends, chances are they won’t see that story you try so hard to hide anyway…. what’s the big deal?
This is a huge problem because most users aren’t aware of this and the dialog box confirming removal of a story says”
“Hiding will remove the story from your Mini-Feed AND PREVENT ANYONE FROM SEEING IT”
Which is very misleading!
Why am I not surprised? How may times will it take before people realize that they are idiots to share their personal information (i.e. their friends and relationships) with Facebook? Again and again, they abuse any notion of privacy or user permission.
The truth is this. If you have a Facebook account you’ve explicitly told them who your friends are. Facebook is busy mining information on their site and other sites to track all your activities – and it’s up to their judgment what to do with that information. And amazingly, they keep thinking it’s a good idea to share what you do indiscriminately — making it seem like it was your mistake that they broadcast, say, all you purchases on Blockbuster, to everybody you know.
Each time this happens, there is a predictable apology and patch fix – but the underlying attitude of the company doesn’t change. It’s time to ask yourself, do you really need this service – and if not, just opt out completely.
I’ve noticed this for a while and have hated it. It’s blatantly a privacy violation and is purposefully misleading. Sometimes there are actions that I take on Facebook that I really don’t want to share with 500+ people. Thank you TechCrunch for finally putting the spotlight on this!
I noticed this a while back, and tell everyone (well, everyone who will actually take action) I know who uses Facebook to go into each application and change the settings. I was actually going to write a ‘note’ on this, but I can just paste a link to this post.
I really like Facebook, but it seems like they’re taking the ‘catch me if you can’ approach to privacy.
THIS ISN’T NEWS!
It has been implemented that way since the Feeds launched.
Humm…. well. thats not good.
Maybe a fix is to give us a 5 min window to edit and reconsider. After the time is up, then send it to the master list.
I hate it as well….
I have been a Facebook developer since the launch of the platform, and it was a seriously disturbing kick in the ass when we figured out that this was happening. When developing and testing an app, developers will typically inundate their mini-feed with test stories.
Of course, being a developer typically means being deeply in touch with your inner 13-year-old, which for me means amusing myself with witty news feed stories using all imaginable forms of profanity, liberally sprinkled with references to fornication with animals, inanimate objects, and friends’ mothers. No big deal, because I would always immediately remove these offensive stories from my news feed, so nobody but myself would see them.
… right?
Wrong.
I was oh-so-thrilled to discover that these little missives instead were being published to my friends, family, and — most awesomely — my clients.
Thanks Facebook!
This is misleading because I don’t think most users differentiate between the “Mini-feed” and the “News feed”
Not really news at all here guys.
This has been this way forever. You are just discovering this? I mean seriously. Come on.
@Rodney are you kidding? I don’t want all my friends knowing absolutely all of my activities on Facebook … this is ridiculous
Nick,
“At least, that’s what most people think. Unfortunately, clicking that ‘x’ doesn’t remove your story from the newsfeed sent to your friends – it only removes it from your own profile.”
This has been this way forever. This is nothing new. I learned this the painfull way ages ago while testing some apps we were developing… they were jamming the news feed by accident while we tuned the app.
Every developer knows this is the way this “Hide Story” works.
Jason,
Just an additional point: “users learned they could control which stories were sent to the News Feed”. That statement is incorrect.
User never have had control over the news feed. They have been able to hide their mini-feed stories. These are 2 distinctly different animals that are only slightly connected.
…and if you bother to read the text near the button it says clearly Mini-Feed…. NOT News-Feed.
Rodney Rumford
Editor: http://www.facereviews.com
“The developers have known about it for months (at least), yet it subsists.”
subsists => persists. hth.
Also, don’t use Jpeg for website logos. Pngs and Gifs are smaller and don’t screw up the color.
I think you mean “compliments.”
I keep reading comments from people who are like, “Really? You didn’t know that?” WTF? Are you for real? Yeah, Facebook has screwed people on personal information before, but how are people supposed to know from reading that something is “preventing anyone from seeing it” that “anyone” means basically one person? It is NOT that obvious to your everyday facebook user, which I will assume makes up a majority of people on Facebook.
@Rodney , I didn’t know about this to be honest. While this may show that I have a lesser knowledge of the platform then some would assume, I honestly feel as though this policy is poor. I seriously thought that clicking “X” prevented it from showing up in others newsfeeds.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by your example but this was clearly misworded. “prevent anyone from seeing it” isn’t a clear statement. I assumed it removed the message everywhere not just in the mini-feed. The way that I also assumed the newsfeed was created is directly from mini-feed stories. Clicking “X” should prevent it from being promoted to the newsfeed.
@Luke, totally agree we are not the average users. The fact that I didn’t know about this places me in the position of an average user. @Rodney … I can guarantee you that this is the beginning of a policy change.
@Rodney Rumford
“Every developer knows this is the way this “Hide Story” works.”
I agree. The vast majority of developers do know this. But most people do not.
“User never have had control over the news feed. They have been able to hide their mini-feed stories. These are 2 distinctly different animals that are only slightly connected.”
The problem is that users think they have control over the News Feed. It is nearly impossible to check what is going to be posted in the News Feed because of the delay, and most people just assume that what they’ve deleted won’t show up.
i didn’t know about this, it was a surprise to me. So, this is NEWS to me. Very unfortunate. These kinds of “little” violations will slowly destroy this company if they aren’t careful.
@ Nick,
Point well taken on the “average user”. I also agree that it should remove it from the mini feed AND the news feed. That is an easy change for them to actually implement.
I hope they do it. Facebook might also want to work on making the wording just a bit clearer.
cheers!
I didn’t know that. It’s really misleading, I thought when I hide a story nobody would get the news in their newsfeed. I hope Facebook will work on that. We’re all sharing lots of information on that website, and I definitely want to keep my informations with me. There are still huge problems about privacy. One thing that could be really great is the possibility to share, for example, a photo set with only the friends I want.
even worse, now I can’t see the tiny X on the news feed that says “i don’t like this”.
Now I have to see all the feed from my friends, even i want to hide them. sux.
will close my account tomorrow.
I didn’t know this either, and I agree that it is very misleading. It’s also likely an architectural issue rather than a policy decision. It should be changed in my opinion.
Were you aware also that EVERY application (including the facebook developed ones) that I click ONLY publish stories about this in my Mini-Feed and NOT my News-Feed are viewable in News-Feeds of those friends without many friends of their own and thus few happenings in their News-Feed? I know this 100% as my Mum is a facebook member and she regularly asks me to check her account for one reason or another.
Hi, I’m the person who started the group on Facebook about this, and also started raising the issue in the developer community, and am glad that Techcrunch have picked up on the issue.
People stating that this is not news and it has always been that way are completely missing the point. The point is that the majority of users are not aware that this is how it works, and are unlikely to be happy with it functioning this way.
Also, when I first mentioned this on the developers forum, lots of app developers *weren’t* aware of this, and were shocked to find out that this was the way things worked, and those who did know about it generally disapproved of it. Take for example this one choice quote from a developer on the bug report I raised on this issue:
“I just finished an events app, so I’m THRILLED to know that my friends have now all received my for-my-eyes-only test story for “Warren invited his friends to the ‘Mourning Jessica Alba’s Vagina’ event. I’m sure my little sister will be proud.
”"
The average user is pretty unlikely to ever stumble across this issue as they’re unlikely to see a friend’s news feed. As far as they know nobody will see the story, as this is what they were told.
Also, when the news feed was first released, and people were in an uproar about that, the main cry in it’s defence was “If you don’t want your friend’s to see a story, you can just hide it” – the only problem being, this doesn’t stop it showing up in friends’ news feeds at all.
Just because it has always been this way doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed. It’s not “news” that Tibetans aren’t happy with Chinese rule, it’s not “news” that Israel and Palestine don’t get along, just because something isn’t “news” it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be concerned about it.
Finally, people are also correct that it won’t show in ALL your friend’s news feeds, as the feed doesn’t publish all stories about all friends; however, that again is not the point, the point is that you were told hiding it would “prevent anyone from seeing it” – you’re hiding it because you don’t want *anyone* to see it, so not a single person should.
Oh, and that group again for anyone who missed it:
http://www.face...?gid=7967973537
To those of you who seem to believe clicking on the ‘X’ in the news feed should remove the story from a friend’s news feed… Do you also feel that clicking the ‘X’ should clear the browser cache of anyone who loaded a page that contained that story before you had a chance to click the ‘X’ or that deleting an email from your sent folder should delete that email from the inbox of anyone you sent it to accidentally?
The ability to broadcast a message (email, facebook stories, whatever…) to large audiences in near real time comes with the unavoidable consequence that once you throw it out there it is near impossible to retract. To believe otherwise or expect that someone else should help you clean up your mess is at best naive and at worst stupid.
That said, I can’t argue that the text on the privacy controls or the popup after clicking on the ‘X’ is not misleading.
“The truth is this. If you have a Facebook account you’ve explicitly told them who your friends are.”
Actually, they don’t. They know who I have added as ‘friends’, a bunch of people the vast majority of whom I used to know but aren’t in contact with anymore. Some of them I didn’t even like. Moreover, not only do they think people are my friends when they aren’t, there are plenty of people who are my friends but Facebook doesn’t think they are, either because they aren’t on Facebook or I haven’t bothered to look for them.
If I made a list of entities which held data about me, with the most worrying at the top, it would go: the UK government, my employer, my former employers, my former university, my former school, various acquaintances to whom I’ve made drunken confessions, my family, my friends, and Facebook comes in at a poor ninth, just above the public library. If you looked at the government’s data on me and Facebook’s data on me next to each other, you would be looking at several well-ordered filing cabinets next to a pile of garbage.
If Facebook tried to use the data I’ve given it to hurt me it would be hilarious. “Mr IAN, this is Facebook. Give us £10,000 or we will kill James Thomson.” “Who?” “James Thomson. Your best friend.” “He’s not my best friend. I haven’t even spoken to him properly since I left school.” “But he’s the person you talk to most! You two have the highest compatibility in the Which Lost Character Are You app AND the Which Subspecies Of Cactus Are You app!” “Firstly, I talk to him most *on Facebook*, but that’s because I talk to my real friends via IM, mobile and face-to-face. Secondly, you’re an idiot.” “We’ll kill him!” “Dude, that sucks but only because murder is wrong, his life has meant nothing to me for years. I’m hanging up and calling the police.” “I’m Chief Blackmail Officer, bitch!” *click*
I’m glad this has been raised, as it shows an inconsistency when clicking on an ‘X’ in Facebook. Everywhere else on the site it means ‘remove item’. On mini-feed it means ‘hide from my own mini-feed’.
I’m sure quite a few people who thought that X-ing the “No longer single” news item would make it disappear will be happy if this inconsistency is corrected.
@amit – I would at least expect it to tell the browser that it’s cache was out of date. Also, you seem to be making the mistaken assumption that once a story is in your mini-feed it is *immediately* sent out to your friends’ news feeds. This isn’t how it works, and there is a delay in stories propagating to your friends; however, hiding a story in this time frame still does not seem to prevent propagation. Also, unlike email, Facebook is in complete control, and has the power to pull a story from feeds, the feeds aren’t set in concrete, and often change or update, it would be very easy for stories to be pulled from friends’ feeds, unlike trying to pull emails back from remote inboxes (as this would take co-operation on a grand scale). Also, with 3rd party apps you also have the option of clicking on ‘I didn’t do this’ which reportedly *does* stop the story showing up in friends’ news feeds. Finally, if when I deleted an email in my sent box I was shown a dialog box saying “deleting this will remove it from the inboxes of everyone you sent it to” then that is *exactly* what I would expect it to do.
@Original Sin – off topic, but there was another inconsistent ‘X’, it’s the one in your news feed, where clicking it registered you disinterest in the story, sometimes made the story smaller, but did not remove it. It seems they’ve got rid of these now though anyway.
@Michael, the statement “Hiding will remove the story from your Mini-Feed and prevent anyone from seeing it” is pertinent only inside the context of the statement, that is, your own profile. Confusing an item in your profile with an item in the news feed is the user’s own mistake. They even give the “mini feed” and “news feed” different names…
are we still having a Facebook loving at techcrunch HQ ? its getting old now with all this techcrunch/facebook crap
@Elliott – sorry, but that interpretation makes the “and prevent anyone from seeing it” part completely redundant. If *all* it is doing is removing it from you mini-feed, then there is no need for it to say ‘and’ *anything*.
The ‘and’ implies it is doing something *in addition* to removing it from your mini-feed, and all that could possibly mean is it would stop it showing in friends’ news feeds (what other way could someone see it, that is being prevented *in addition* to removing it from your mini-feed?). Also, if the ‘and’ did indeed still apply to the context of the mini-feed, then there should still be a viable option if it were negated; however, there isn’t, it just doesn’t make sense “Hiding will remove the story from your mini-feed but won’t prevent anyone from seeing it” – you can’t remove it from your mini-feed without preventing users from seeing it in you mini-feed, so arguing that it is pertinent only to the context of the mini-feed just doesn’t make sense.
It would almost make sense in the context you suggest if it said “Hiding will remove the story from your Mini-Feed preventing anyone from seeing it”, but would still be rather misleading, and it would not *at all* be the users fault if they misinterpreted it. It is Facebook’s responsibility to make it clear, not the user’s responsibility to try and guess the context it applies to.
Finally, everything aside, even if we pretend it does make sense applying just to the context of the mini-feed, and even if we pretend that it wouldn’t be misleading if that were that the case, then *still* 85% of users who responded to my poll do not think that it should function that way.
added this post to http://www.tectrnd.com
cheers
vincent
I dont see why this is news… it was made clear in a facebook blog post some time ago that removing from mini-feed does not remove from the public timeline. Seems like we are a day late and a dollar short.
This is terrible. Jason, thanks for reporting on this. Facebook: get this fixed!
I can’t believe there are idiots defending this. Must be Facebook employee trolls. How long must you have worked in the web business to know that the average user doesn’t have a damn clue what the difference is between ‘mini’ feed and ‘news’ feed. Most Facebook engineers don’t even know the difference. It’s not like the names are remotely descriptive. This is indefensible unless you are related to Zuckerberg or you have a chunk of Facebook stock.
@Luke: You seem to have taken the time to respond to my entire comment, I might as well do the same in return.
“I would at least expect it to tell the browser that it’s cache was out of date.”
Fair enough, how about screen shots of a web page? You are splitting hairs here and completely missing the point that a full deletion of any digital broadcast is absurd.
“you seem to be making the mistaken assumption that once a story is in your mini-feed it is *immediately* sent out to your friends’ news feeds”
Actually, Luke, I am not. I am maken the fairly well guided assumption that once an action is executed events are triggered to create a “story” and begin the propogation of that content to both your mini-feed and your friends’ news feeds. The fact that arrival times are off set or decision points along the way could prevent that story from actually being published in some or all of your friends’ feeds in no way indicates that it would be possible for you to trigger a subsequent event that could for all intents and purposes “catch-up” to the first and infuence its ability to be published.
“it would be very easy for stories to be pulled from friends’ feeds, unlike trying to pull emails back from remote inboxes (as this would take co-operation on a grand scale)”
Nah, both involve the exact same things — the ability to publish a message that indicates a previously received message is invalid and clients that support the protocol to the extent that while both “messages” are present the first is not displayed. This type of agreement on a protocol is what allows many web-technologies to function so it is far from the “co-operation on a grand scale” you are making it out to be. That said, you seem to be missing the point here. I’m not saying it is not possible to remove the remote item, I’m saying a true retraction of the item is impossible due to the possibility (likelihood?) that the remote item was already consumed before the deletion was made. So any attempts to confirm or strengthen your belief in the contrary would simply be playing on your, in the best case, naivete.
“Finally, if when I deleted an email in my sent box I was shown a dialog box saying…”
Yes, agreed, the text is misleading. That’s not really your point though, is it?You aren’t arguing for a text change, you are arguing for the introduction of a retraction feature.
What’s more… what happened to the “x” and thumbs up on the main news feed? They’re gone this morning.
WTF?
Since the news feed has been broken for the last few hours (noone is getting updates that I can tell), I wonder if Facebook are changing this as we speak?
I thought they put thought into this stuff. Why is it that they wait for other people to point out glaring errors before making changes? Maybe they are not as smart as everyone makes them out to be.
Jason, you buried the lede: “We’ve contacted Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly for comment.”
@amit – it would take more co-operation to pull back emails, as anyone is able to write an email client, and even if it the deletion mechanism you describe were part of the protocol, they would be completely at liberty to ignore this part of the protocol. The Facebook news feed is entirely at the control of Facebook, so it is perfectly simple for them to remove items from users feeds. The fact that you reportedly *can* remove them from friends feeds using the “I did not do this” option, also, in my opinion, makes you argument somewhat void. I’m also not convinced by your “guided assumption” as to how it works, but lets not get into a technical debate about the internal workings of Facebooks news feed system.
You are also absolutely correct that someone could have read the feed story before you have hidden it; but that is a pathetic reason not to try and stop further reading of it. Someone could already have seen it in my mini feed, but there is still the option to hide it. Obviously there are limitations to what can be done, but I don’t believe pulling it from a friends feed is such a limitation.
Also, it is true that my main aim is to change the behaviour; however, if that is really not possible, than at minimum the text should be changed, and users should be made more aware of the behaviour.
@luke (re: #31)
My little sister DID see my “Mourning Jessica Alba’s Vagina” test event, and she was very, very proud.