Facebook is a sex media denizen’s perpetual rock/hard place.
On one hand, for work, the reach there is potentially huge. And in terms of your private life, it makes staying in touch super easy. On the other hand, Facebook apparently hates all forms of sex media, sex work and sexualized expression; seems to enforce its terms of service (TOS) with arbitrary abandonment; and will apparently eventually inevitably out you via algorithm – not matter what your privacy settings say. Oh, and they share your data with others.
In spite of these fairly egregious practices, many apps and online services use Facebook to speed up and simplify their registration and login processes. You’ve seen this before: First time users share their Facebook profile with whatever app or service. This then imports the user’s name, age, school or occupation, blood type (jk) and photos to build a profile. Presumably there were some identity verification bonuses behind this, too.
But now, the week after Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress, some apps are changing their terms of service to not mandate Facebook linkage. For instance, according to Wired, lady-centered dating app Bumble has changed its login system to help its 30 million-plus users avoid Facebook’s data traps. The new feature, which launches today (April 17), lets users register and login without sharing information with or via Facebook, which was previously a requirement.
“Many of our users and prospective users asked for an alternative registration method,” Bumble VP Louise Troen told Wired. “As always, empowering our users to make connections is our number one priority and we wanted to continue to ensure our users felt safe while doing this.”
The new sign in/sign up process gives users the option to use their phone number for verification, though people can still login to Bumble using their Facebook account if they choose to.
Why should you care?
As Facebook (possibly) becomes less and less “mandatory,” the site may begin to actually value user experiences — perhaps even enforcing its rules in a consistent manner? This may, in turn, help people become comfortable using the site for business purposes. It may also make it so you can feel confident about your privacy within the space.
May.
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Erika is a sex positive people watcher (and writer). Email her at erika@ynotcam.com.
Image via Gregor Varl
