• All Facebook, Thursday, November 11, 2010 1:09 PM

Who needs online privacy legislation? In the interest of control, teens are doctoring their Facebook experiences in ways that could make it harder for the social network -- and its marketing partners -- to track their connections and behavior. A "Super-logoff," for instance, is when a Facebook user literally deactivates his or her account -- but doesn't erase it -- so that other users can't post anything on their wall, or even look them up. As All Facebook explains, more teens are taking the super-logoff route when they're not online and unable to closely monitor what others might be saying about them.

"Whitewalling," meanwhile, keeps one's Facebook content invariably current, and of the moment. As social media researcher danah boyd [yes, lowercase] points out, whitewalling is basically giving the middle finger to Facebook "as a data retention agent," All Facebook notes. Sure, this sort of behavior could be considered extreme, and is unlikely to achieve mass adoption beyond the teen demographic, but, as any marketer will tell, that's cause enough for concern.

Read the whole story at All Facebook »