Facebook Dating and Network Privacy
It’s Facebook Official, Dating Is Here
This past month, Facebook will be releasing a new dating service that’s accessible through its mobile platforms. In an article published on the Facebook Newsroom site, Nathan Sharp, Product Manager of Facebook Dating, writes that “Safety, security and privacy are at the forefront of this product. Since Facebook users are connected to close friends, relatives, co-workers, and distant friends, it makes sense that the company is emphasizing privacy for a product that caters to very personal needs.
Facebook Dating tries to solve users’ privacy needs by providing them functionality to manage the ties in their friend network. By default, profiles are only of people that have opted-in and selected via like preferences and interests. If a user wants to engage with their friend network, they can select the “Secret Crush” feature which allows them to select specific friends and friends of friends that are interested in. In addition, it is up to the user whether or not they want to include being shown to friends of friends. Furthermore, users can block specific people from seeing them in this service.
While these design choices may seem simple, they are vital for maintaining user privacy. These features allow the user to construct their dating network as they see fit. They have significant control over which strong and weak ties they will be connected to. At the same time, there are very few degrees of separation between Facebook users. In fact, Facebook Research has confirmed that there are only an average of 3.57 degrees of separation on the platform. However, since they have so much influence on their network, there is a possibility they may inadvertently compromise their own privacy. Even if they choose to block certain people, if a user enables themselves to be seen by friends of friends, they will be exposing themselves to more people than they expect.