MEDIA ROOTS – Facebook, often referred to as “Fascistbook” in some circles for their authoritarian practices, has again upset users by unilaterally switching email addresses on user profiles to [user]@facebook.com. Messages are thus delivered to account inboxes without prior consent of the user.

It’s a sly attempt by Facebook to keep their audience on their sites despite the obvious violation of privacy. While users are still able to revert back to their regular email address, the switch was done discreetly and without any prior notification. In 2010, all Facebook users were provided with a Facebook email address, but it wasn’t until this past weekend that all profiles were switched over.

Avaaz, an international online social movement, has a petition that has attracted over 900 signers in the last twenty-four hours. “This major change to the privacy settings of hundreds of millions of Facebook users without their consent is unethical, and it’s bad business.”

Oskar Mosco

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THE DAILY CALLER – Over the weekend, Facebook users may have noticed that their default email address was changed to their Facebook email address without any action on their part.

The company first announced the change was coming in April with little-to-no fanfare after first releasing the new service in 2010. Their aim is to allow users to consolidate their electronic communications in one place — Facebook. Facebook’s post-email vision of the Internet was viewed at the time as a potential Gmail killer. 

“The change was noticed over the weekend by blogger Gervase Markham, who said that in making the move, the company conducted an man-in-the-middle (“MITM”) attack on him. In cryptography and computer security, a man-in-the-middle attack is a form of eavesdropping, in which the attacker relays messages being sent between the victims without their knowing about it.”

“In other words, Facebook silently inserted themselves into the path of formerly-direct unencrypted communications from people who want to email me,” Markham wrote.

The change was also noticed by Lifehacker and Forbes.

While switching user default settings might be a way to take a crack at incumbent email service providers — Google, for example — technology blog Lifehacker made the point in 2010 that Facebook email wasn’t about email: “It’s about extending the reach of Facebook messages.”

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Photo by Flickr user aranarth