You already know that Facebook and privacy don't really get along, but many "improvements" to the service are making it easier and easier to share everything without even knowing. Avi Charkham rounded a bunch of these tricks up over at TechCrunch, and they're as subtle as they are sketchy.


Some of the changes seem to play on psychology, like swapping out the old pair of "Allow, Don't Allow" buttons for just one that says "Play game" that you either click, or don't. Others, are sort of flagrant once you've noticed them. One Charkham describes as the "The Tiny Hidden Info Symbol Trick" is of those ones. From TechCrunch:

In the old Design Facebook presented a detailed explanation about the "basic" information you're about to expose to the apps you're adding. In the new design they decided to hide that info. If you pay careful attention you'll see a tiny little "?" symbol and if you hover over it you'll discover that this app is about to gain access to your name, profile pic, Facebook user ID, gender, networks, list of friends and any piece of info you've made public on Facebook. Quite a lot of info for a 20×10 pixel tiny hidden info symbol don't you think?!


Facebook is a free service so you are the product; none of this should really come as a surprise. Still, its interesting—if also a bit scary—to see the design choices intended to make you part with your personal information. [TechCrunch via Boing Boing]