Facebook set to lose 26,000 users

Today is Quit Facebook Day and over 26,000 people have vowed to leave the social network due to privacy concerns.

However according to new research the day is unlikely to be detrimental to Facebook. Research firm Vision Critical said a mass exodus is unlikely to occur because users have grown too accustomed to the site.

Facebook has upset users in recent months by not giving them enough control over their personal data. For example, Facebook’s changes in privacy settings in December allowed users to control who sees each individual piece of content they upload, whereas the previous policy had allowed users to create block settings, which proved easier to manage.

Facebook recently admitted it “missed the mark” with the change and after complaints from the European data protection agency and the US Federal Trade Commission, it modified its data policy.

However for many Facebook users the modifications are not enough. “We don’t think Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the future,” said the group Quit Facebook Day.

The group said the privacy issue is just a symptom of a “larger set of issues” and urged users to leave the social network even though Facebook can be enjoyable and addictive.

But Matt Kleinschmit, Vision Critical media president, said while Facebook users are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy, predictions of the firm loosing a large amount of its users in one day are “highly overrated”.

“Too many users are just too vested in the service to delete their account and dismantle a social network they have cultivated over time,” he said.

A Vision Critical survey of nearly 700 US Facebook users found that only 11 percent were aware of Quit Facebook Day and only two per cent said they were going to quit.

Over 80 per cent of respondents say they are now using Facebook more carefully and 76 percent said they were not sharing as much personal information as they used to.