Randi Zuckerberg’s Blames Writer For Posting ‘Private’ Christmas Photo, Viewable To Subscribers
Randi Zuckerberg unwittingly exposed some of Facebook’s privacy woes this Christmas, when she took a subscriber to task for posting a photo Zuckerberg believed was only viewable “by friends.”
Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark Zuckerberg, is a Facebook alum herself and is now Founder CEO of Zuckerberg Media. And while Facebook changes privacy settings more frequently than many of us change hoodies, it seems the subscriber vs. friend trap snared the social media chief and drew the woman who reposted it, Callie Schweitzer, into a debate about what kind of content should be shared from accounts such as Facebook profiles.
It seems the confusion that began with a tweet from Randi Zuckerberg stemmed from a private Christmas photo she posted to what she believed were her Facebook friends.
But according to Schweitzer, the image was one that was viewable to subscribers as well — and if you allow subscribers, as Randi seems to have, then anyone who sends you a Facebook friend request is auto-subscribed to your updates.
As many who responded to Zuckerberg’s tweet pointed out, it wasn’t Schweitzer’s fault the image appeared in her feed, but Randi huffed:
Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend’s photo publicly. It’s not about privacy settings, it’s about human decency
— Randi Zuckerberg (@randizuckerberg) December 26, 2012
On social media, users are not feeling very sympathetic to Randi Zuckerberg’s beefs, as a huge part of the problem is that many people are inadvertently misled to believe their posts are more private than they seem to be. Schweitzer was apologetic, tweeting:
@randizuckerberg I’m just your subscriber and this was top of my newsfeed. Genuinely sorry but it came up in my feed and seemed public. — Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) December 26, 2012
@randizuckerberg totally fair. I would hate for a private photo of mine to be public and would never want to do same to others. — Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) December 26, 2012
@randizuckerberg fwiw, I thought the photo was incredibly endearing which is why I liked it. We never see humans on the Internet!
— Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) December 26, 2012
@randizuckerberg done. I’m completely sensitive to privacy. i loved the photo bc it seemed so fun and normal. You should make it public! ?
— Callie Schweitzer (@cschweitz) December 26, 2012
Although Randi Zuckerberg did deign to reply to Schweitzer, she hasn’t apologized as of yet for accusing the content creator of leaking a “private” photo that appeared to be not private.
@cschweitz would really appreciate if you would delete the original tweet where you posted the photo. No need to spread it further. Thanks!
— Randi Zuckerberg (@randizuckerberg) December 26, 2012
