Facebook Bullies Users into Adopting Email Address

That sneaky Facebook. For years, the social networking site tracked its users' online activity and sold the information to third-party advertisers. Now the company has decided to force a new @facebook.com email address on all its users, even those who have not signed on for the service.

Worst yet, the social media company has plonked its new email address right onto its users' main Facebook page.

According to reports, the email address now appears on everyone's main Facebook page and cannot be deleted. However, users can choose to hide the @facebook.com email address from public visitors, as well as from friends and family.

Facebook Becomes Responsible for Filtering Spam

The good news is that messages sent to the new @facebook.com account will appear only in the Facebook messages folder. They won't be redirected to a main email addresses (unless this is what users want).

Unfortunately, unless users decide to hide the new email address, it will be published publicly.

As a result, Facebook users will have little control over who sends them an email message. It also leaves Facebook responsible for providing an effective spam filter. Many people have doubts that the company is capable of doing that.

As one might expect, many technology insiders are upset with these changes by Facebook.

"The real problem is that Facebook has once again made a significant change without informing its users of any of this," said PC Mag's Jill Duffy. (Source: pcmag.com)

"Don't do this again," admonished popular tech blog Gizmodo. (Source: gizmodo.com)

Personal Emails Hidden in Favor of @facebook.com

The problem for many Facebook users who have chosen to display their personal email addresses is that Facebook, without authorization, has posted the new @facebook.com email address on their main page.

For example, the email address 'JohnSmith@hotmail.com' has now been changed to 'JohnSmith@facebook.com'.

Facebook has been offering an email service since November 2010. At that time, the company announced it would be "providing an @facebook.com email address to every person on Facebook who wants one." (Source: arstechnica.com)

It would appear Facebook has now taken that announcement a step further by forcing a new email address on every member, even those who did not request one.