I'll be the first person to admit that Facebook privacy settings are confusing; they change so often that, at this point, it takes me about 10 minutes to figure out how to upload a photo, and that's only if I call my little brother first. (In my day, we walked uphill to school both ways and we were only allowed space for one profile picture! And your Facebook wall was like a lawless western frontier!)
But one would assume that Randi Zuckerberg (Mark's sister/reality TV show producer/the former marketing director of Facebook) would have a solid grasp on how it all works. Apparently not, judging from what we will now call Pokegate, which was captured by Buzzfeed last night.
Here's what happened: Randi posted a Facebook photo showing her family's reaction to the site's new "Poke" app. Vox Media's Callie Schweitzer tweeted the photo because she thought it was cute. Randi was upset that the public would now know that her family has a big fluffy dog (bottom left), Mark wears hoodies on Christmas (top right, and duh), and, ooh, what do you think is in that black and white-bordered container in the center? Pickles?
She tweeted:
Schweitzer apologized and responded that she only saw the photo because she subscribes to her updates, but Randi pointed out that she probably saw it because she's friends with Randi's sister. "Thnx for apology," Randi tweeted back. "I'm just sensitive to private photos becoming 'news.'"
Aren't we all, Randi. AREN'T WE ALL.
Schweitzer graciously deleted the photo — veeery graciously, because Randi obnoxiously chalked it up to rudeness, not Facebook's labyrinthine privacy settings:
"Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend's photo publicly. It's not about privacy settings, it's about human decency."
Ah, human decency, the first commandment of Facebook's Code of Conduct. Maybe Schweitzer should've paid a dollar to send her a message instead?
[Buzzfeed]