Facebook: You Say Tuh-mey-toh, I Say Tuh-mah-toh
Yesterday, fellow LPPer, Ted Weismann, shared his thoughts on Facebook's covert email address change, and more importantly told us how to fix it. I don't mean to pile on but I can't help it because I'm so amused that Facebook is trying to turn this into a semantic discussion.
I just read Nick Bilton's post on the New York Times Bits blog, "On Facebook, the semantics of visibility vs privacy." It borders on hilarious. A Facebook spokesperson told Bilton the email swap was a change to our 'visibility settings,' rather than a change impacting our privacy. Tuh-mey-toh, tuh-mah-toh, right?
In defense of the spokesperson, her job is to deliver a consistent message which is sanctioned by the company. Presuming she isn't the architect of the message, she's just in a tough spot, I'm going to give her a pass. As someone who delivers messaging services, I know there can be a lot of cooks in the kitchen and in the end everyone needs to get on board with whatever is decided.
That all being said, if Facebook wants to make this a semantic discussion, I would suggest it become more familiar with the word transparency.
What's your perception of this latest PR move? Is visibility vs. privacy valid?
