Facebook indirectly traces its roots to Mark Zuckerberg’s infamous website Facemash, an online service that allowed Harvard students to rate the attractiveness of their female schoolmates in illicitly acquired photographs. Facebook has gone a long way since then, but some pretty sketchy practices still persist in the Palo Alto-based company.

User-unfriendliness

The New York Times notes that Facebook’s privacy policy statement, at 5,830 words, is longer than the United States constitution. The policy entails that a registered user’s information is public by default. Also, privacy-related FAQ amounts to 45,000 words.

Forced disclosure

One policy that Facebook users have to agree with is the company’s ‘right’ to “use information about you that we collect from other Facebook users to supplement your profile.” The site has also previously mined users’ private messages for information.

Peddling life stories

The privacy policy says that Facebook “may share [information] with third parties,” and this has led critics to allege that the company claims the right to sell its users’ private information to other companies or organizations.

Blocking and filtering

Facebook has been criticized for censoring posts and deactivating accounts that publish ‘controversial’ entries. It has gone to such decidedly ridiculous extents that Facebook took down several accounts of mothers who posted breastfeeding photos.

Abusive content

While Facebook purged itself of breastfeeding photos, it still serves as a hotbed for volatile content. There had been protests against the site in some places due to, for example, pages that sacrilegiously depicted Muhammad or glorified mafia leaders.