Seamus Condron writes:
This was said to me by a fellow dinner guest this week, during a discussion about Facebook’s new version of Groups (read Marshall Kirkpatrick’s analysis here). The day after launch, the shine of Facebook’s latest product announcement began to tarnish when it was discovered that that the new version of Groups was opt-in by default. It was later reported that tech frenemies Michael Arrington and Jason Calacanis were automatically added to a new Facebook Group called “NAMBLA” (North American Man Boy Love Association). Drama ensued. [Note: they were not added automatically — their “friends” added them — Dissent]
Why did this happen? Facebook’s new groups are opt-in by default, meaning any one of your friends can add you to any group without you saying it’s OK. While you can immediately unsubscribe to a group you’re added to, or modify the email notifications settings for it, the fact remains that getting automatically put in a group can be annoying, especially when the topic is man-boy love. Facebook should probably modify this by converting Groups to an invitation-based model.
Read more on ReadWriteWeb.
Via @PrivacyMemes