How to permanently solve privacy issues on Facebook et al

One can hardly go more than a few days without seeing someone post about doing this or that to protect your privacy online, or about some supposedly gross abuse of privacy.

From my point of view, the authors of every single one of these posts have failed to grasp one very simple concept. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn (yes, even LinkedIn), ad nauseum ad infinitum, are all social networks. Have any of these people even looked up what the word “social” means? The very core of a social network’s existence is to be social. It’s right there in the name!

Here’s why I have never truly had any problem with privacy on any social network, and why I never will. I simply assume at all times that the information I willingly post to a social network could be seen by most anyone. Period. Privacy on a social network is a privilege, not a right. You most definitely do not have the right to say something on Facebook with the guarantee that only 1-2 specific people will EVER see it. If you don’t want your soon-to-be ex spouse learning all the ways you intend to legally drag his name through the mud and take him for every cent he or she is worth, then don’t talk to your closest friend about it through any social network. Even if your spouse deserves what you have planned, I can’t hold much sympathy if the spouse found out about it through Facebook and thwarted your plan.

KEEP PRIVATE STUFF OFF SOCIAL NETWORKS.

Follow this very simple rule and you will never every have any issue with what Facebook et al does with its privacy policies. Simply assume anyone in the world MIGHT see what you post and, thus, only post what you don’t mind if the world sees.