What decent and more secure alternatives are there to Facebook?

[Masterjam938]

I've had enough of Facebook's constant dubious privacy policy changes and am not satisfied with how they treat the members who ultimately make their business the huge financial giant that it has become. What is your top alternative website, or top three perhaps?

Criteria for inclusion:
- open and honest privacy policy
- no time-wasting third-party applications
- additional features (such as live group chat and blogging)
- customer service who respond within a reasonable time-frame
- free to join and free to use

[Philosophize]

LOL! Try phones or talking to people in person, but that's not completely secure either. Really, Facebook is only secure as you allow it to be. You give it information and pictures. If you feel that what you type or upload is a privacy concern then don't type it or upload it. It's as simple as that. Adverts pay the bills, 3rd party apps are a feature, customer service? have you paid Facebook? LOL this is really silly!

[Chris G]

Geez!  You don't want much, do you!  I have my privacy settings so only the people I choose to be 'friends' can see anything of mine, and I never use the games and stuff, and block them as the appear on my friends' posts -- point at a post, hit the 'hide' button, and you'll get two choices:  Hide [person] and Hide [application/game].

The other complication with what you wnat to do is that you'd have to talk all your friends into signing up with whatever new social network you choose;  otherwise, how are you going oto get into a group chat with them?

If you can't cope with that, then maybe you should consider just using email and phone.
 

[Pete]

Your question isn't as 'really silly' as the first answerer claims. After-all you are effectively paying Facebook's bills for them by merely being a member on the site and freely giving over all those bits of user data to them and their advertisers. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some respect for that!

To answer your question though, I recommend http://www.folkdirect.com which I found recently in an article in Huffington Post. And more specifically, responding to your criteria:

- open and honest privacy policy
---> http://alturl.com/6ufa - looks straightforward and sensible

- no time-wasting third-party applications
---> they have none unless you count a Facebook 'Like' button LOL

- additional features (such as live group chat and blogging)
---> all the usual things like comment walls, events, messaging are there and also live chat for all members (and private) and also an extensive blog section

- customer service who respond within a reasonable time-frame
---> they have a ticketed support site. I've not had to use it, but it looks like a pretty efficient system

- free to join and free to use
---> yes it's free

[vgamerboy]

Myspace , Linkedin, and googles new social networking website.