Facebook Keeps Chat History

A new article here from MSN's Technolog. That reveals that Facebook users can no longer delete their chat history. The author, Athima Chansanchai, seems somewhat vexed by this but more on a personal convenience level than an outrage over limiting our freedom level. I will say that I am no fan of Facebook, I do have an account that I basically never use. I do find it interesting though how afraid we seem to get whenever Facebook or any website really, tries to limit the abilities we have as users.
As a culture we spout volumes of things into the great unknown of the internet and we never really know where it all goes. Everything from emails to credit card numbers we float around in cyberspace trusting, generally, that everything will be okay and that we are safe from people snooping about us. Generally we are, but the fact is we expose ourselves in the anonymity of the internet in very personal ways that we would never do in real life. We do it without thinking, we email dirty jokes and pictures, we say ridiculous things and we act irresponsibly. The difference is, usually we have no idea that we are being watched, there is no trust issue because we never really think much of Yahoo, GMail and many of the other sites. The email providers we use are like a telephone always there, taking care of everything, and you don't ever think of it as something you have to be skeptical of because these things just are what they are, they are place holders for the information that we need, they don't have a soul.
Thus entered Facebook. Facebook was unique because it has personality, not only can we link of up with old friends, new friends, red friends, blue friends, it gives us something back, it allows us to poke each other in a way that's not dirty. It gives us access to countless games and therefore countless more potential friends. Facebook wasn't just a switchboard of typed communication it was like a digital mall where we could all meet and hang out whenever we wanted to for as long as we needed. The frustration comes because of the trust, Facebook is the high school best friend that you went to parties with that turned around and stabbed you in the back. It lead us all down the primrose path of how we can show off pictures of how, "I got like dude totally wasted" and it told everyone that it was awesome that we did it.
Now Facebook tries to take away some of the freedoms it allowed us from the beginning, from things like; not really, technically deleting pictures right away. Now its taking away another power, a power we don't have most places online but we appreciate it when we do. It's deflating and demeaning that Facebook doesn't seem to trust us with our own information. Really the answer is that, as a culture, we need to stop sharing our lives online and assume no one will ever know, but until then Facebook will always face an uphill climb when its comes to how much power the user has. Every time the Facebook team tries to limit it, it will be a public relations issue, and it should be because sometimes its nice to be in control.