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Facebook fallout: survey finds 60 percent may quit over privacy

A survey by security firm Sophos finds that 60 percent of Facebook users are considering quitting over concerns about privacy.
Written by Sam Diaz, Inactive

I can't imagine that the Facebook faithful would just walk away from their farms, their Mafia Wars and their daily status updates. But a survey by security firm Sophos shows that 60 percent of Facebook users - yes, 60 percent - are considering quitting over privacy concerns.

Apparently, Facebook has crossed a line with its last round of changes to the privacy policy and settings. The changes - which largely require users to opt-out, instead of opt-in - have not been well-received. Facebook reportedly called an all-hands meeting last week to discuss privacy concerns and there's been buzz that revisions to the nearly-6,000-word privacy policy (longer than the U.S. Constitution) are coming (again), though we still haven't seen that.

Are they really willing to jump ship or are they too locked in to a Facebook world? Well, consider this: Just last week, one of the top trending searches on Facebook was "delete facebook account," Sophos reported. And Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land has put together a pretty compelling report that suggests that Facebook;'s active user growth has dropped 25 percent to 50 percent over the privacy concerns.

While it's true there's a pretty strong commitment to Facebook among its users, there was also the same sort of commitment toward AOL and MySpace at one point, too.

It's hard to believe that Facebook has once again botched a privacy setting

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