Facebook Frightened?

Facebook is suing to keep you from leaving. In the past year a few services have risen to enable us to remove all evidence of our existence from the likes of Facebook. And Facebook is unhappy. Seppukoo.com allows you to commit "virtual suicide" - something I am not sure I like, even as a joke. But it is a novel idea, and one that Facebook doesn't like. They have sent a Cease and Desist (link to pdf) order, which the founders of Seppukoo have replied to ('nuther pdf). Not surprisingly, it's a polite "bugger off". I hope they have good legal council. I think morality is on their side, but it's been a long time since justice and morality played a part in any legal system I've seen. Oh, and if you do use Seppukoo but want to be reborn, you can get your socialnetwork going again by the oh so stressful task of logging into your Facebook account.

Another service, Power.com, allows you to access many social networking sites from one, making social networking easier. Again, Facebook is taking legal action. I can understand this one. Facebook makes money from ads. No visits to your Facebook page, no ads displayed or clicked, no money.

Last, we have Suicide Machine, a service which will completely remove you from Facebook. You cannot simply log back in, you will have to create a whole new Facebook profile after using Suicide Machine. Facebook is blocking the Suicide Machine IP, so right now the service isn't available.

The amusing (sic) thing about Facebooks reaction to these services is that they claim to be doing it out of concern for users privacy. They obviously think being concerned with privacy = being soft in the head. How can my choosing to use one of these services be more hazardous to my privacy than Facebook making the default "privacy" setting for everything "Share with the world"?

Double standards. Gotta luv 'em.