The chances are small, but there is a chance as demonstrated in the article. Consider this profile (random, and I'm not connected to him) http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1189567657 where all his profile info is public and linked to "pages". It wasn't the case earlier.
I'm not convinced that the article demonstrates anything yet -- it doesn't really explain how this targeting was done, just vaguely claims this is because of some "new" changes in connections privacy. My whole point is that there isn't anything new about the way Page connections behave.
What is new, as you said above, is that the plain text boxes where users put in their favorite movies etc, are now links to Pages. Previously, these movie strings were actually links to a search for users who mentioned the same text. What has changed is the target of this link -- it is now a Page instead of a search result. And as before, you can still control the visibility of these boxes on your Profile.
Sorry, nothing personal against you, but then that is the same line taken by the upper management in FB who say that there is no real loss of privacy. And yet, I ask you to just do a time bound google search/YC search and you will see HOW many people are raising concerns with FB's recent changes. And this hasn't even gone to instant personalization yet or the forced opt out instead of opt in (I'd really like if you actually addressed this opt out policy if you choose to respond to this comment)
<i>And as before, you can still control the visibility of these boxes on your Profile</i>
Please tell me how? The privacy options themselves have become so convoluted that I am not sure if it is set as I desired. And I have no way to check it as well. You know why? Cos my profile URL shows a 404 if I'm not logged in to FB. Check it out: http://www.facebook.com/anantj - Try with your logged in browser and another which you've never used to login to FB.
Why is it that I can't have free form text at all? Why _must_ it be linked to pages? At least give me an option to prevent that for movies, tv, religion etc
If you're interested in seeing if your settings are working, you can try the "Preview my profile" button on that page.
Btw, I found that page under top right Account->Privacy.
- I wasn't involved enough with the Instant Personalization product to be comment on it competently.
- As for criticism, you can be sure we're watching very closely. IMO, much of it is because people don't really understand the changes or what is affected (as you point out, this stuff is insanely complicated, and we need to do a lot better at explaining and clarifying it to people).
- You can absolutely have free form text. The "Bio" field on your profile is free form.
Why can't you have it in the "Favorite blah" boxes?
(a) Users simply used Pages to do this a lot more than they used the free form text. That stuff was edited once, and it wasn't convenient to maintain as your likes and dislikes changed.
(b) We think there is significant utility that we can provide to the user from having this information in a structured format. Instant personalization aside, going to Pandora and hearing your favorite music play is pretty cool. We think we can do a lot more here.
Religion is already not in this set -- it was not included in the Connections change recently.
Also, not sure if you have read but this is not good either: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebooks_high_pressure...