Facebook Quietly Created New E-Mail Addresses

Facebook made its name by building one of the world’s most popular social networks. But, it sometimes,  itself comes across as antisocial.

Facebook is invaluable as a platform for finding long-lost friends, not to mention sharing links, photos and personal videos. For better and worse, the site has even redefined the word “like.”

Of course Facebook manages to use all of this goodwill to its own advantage. And the company often needs to be reminded that there are limits to how much it can exploit user information for profit.

Facebook has settled a class-action lawsuit that forces it to be more clear that clicking on the “Like” button means your name and photo can be used to endorse whatever movie, product or politician you “liked.”

Most recently, Facebook surreptitiously modified user profiles to replace their original e-mail addresses with @facebook.com addresses. Mail sent to that address becomes a Facebook message to a user. You’d think that a company with so many loyal followers would have announced this ahead of time. That’s a definite dislike.

(Via Scientific American)