I’ve never thought of myself as a privacy-conscious person. I use the same password for my bank as I do for my The New York Times login, my phone records and my Facebook account. Come to think of it, most of my close friends and some of my ex-girlfriends probably know the password too. So I was kind of surprised to find myself clicking through “privacy options” on Facebook.com the other day because I’ve never clicked “privacy options” on any Web site in the past.

In the words of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s goal has been to create “an environment where people could share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over whom they shared that information with.”

In the past, Facebook has thrived precisely because it created a comfortable space where users can feel safe sharing their information. If and when a privacy issue did come up, it was always easy enough to change the setting.

Yet as Facebook’s development of new features has accelerated, the comfort and privacy that were the bedrock of its success has fallen by the wayside. When Facebook introduced the new mini-feed, users suddenly lost control over both what they were viewing and what others could read about them — a move Zuckerberg later described as “a big mistake.”

When the new mini-feed privacy features were introduced, I went through and unchecked several of the things Facebook offered to broadcast about me — the end of a relationship, disaffiliation from a student group, removal of stuff from my online profile — and then, on second thought, unchecked all of them. If I want to broadcast that I’ve recently added a friend, I’d be perfectly content writing in my profile “Guess who I just added as a friend,” along with their name. When I thought about it, I didn’t want any of that stuff automatically broadcast. What I wanted was the control over my personal presentation that I had before.

But the items I unchecked — all that were available — were just a subset of the things that Facebook broadcasts. I can uncheck the “broadcast my breakups” box, but I can’t uncheck the “broadcast my get-togethers.” Facebook only offers the chance to un-check the things that they think you’d most likely be upset about.

Down at the bottom of the list, it says “Have something you’d like to see here?” Yeah I have something I’d like to see here: everything! Rather than belatedly offering to stop a few broadcasts, how about giving me control over which broadcasts I want? I was frustrated. Now whenever I do certain things, I have to go back and delete the news story I just generated.

It was in that frame of mind that I read a newspaper story detailing the next step in Facebook’s plan: to let any member of the public join. Naturally, there are some things I’m comfortable sharing with college students that I don’t necessarily want to share with the entire public. As a result, I had to reconsider every piece of information in my profile.

This was already a far cry from the Facebook of yesteryear. Rather than a comfortable, safe place where most people were pretty much happy with the default privacy settings, now information I’d thought I was sharing with a small group was going to be shared much more widely. It was up to me, the user, to proactively go through and make sure I was comfortable with everything.

Going through the profile, my photos and my wall were easy. Those were from back in the day, before Facebook forgot their privacy values.

Next, I began to go through my postings on other people’s walls. But wait! How do you find all the walls you’ve posted on again? It turns out that, unlike “photos of me” there isn’t a “wall postings by me” section. I emailed the people in the privacy department at Facebook, asking them if there was any way to see all of my wall postings in one place.

They got back to me quickly: “Click on the Wall-to-Wall button at the bottom of any wall post and that will show a list of all wall posts that you and the other user have exchanged.”

“Right, but I have a thousand [facebook] friends,” I responded. “Is there any way to know where all my wall postings are, or do I have to click Wall-to-Wall with each of them?”

“Unfortunately, the feature you are requesting is not available,” the response continued. “We are always working to improve Facebook, and we’ll be releasing a few surprises in the coming weeks.”

Somehow I don’t think the privacy feature I had requested is one of the surprises they have planned for the coming weeks. My ex-girlfriend (the one that knows all my passwords) just started work yesterday as a customer service representative at Facebook. Before the end of her first day at work, she had memorized that response.

At least I didn’t hear back, “Thanks for the great suggestion. We will certainly keep it in mind as we continue to improve the site.” That would have been frustrating because, as another Facebook customer service rep put it, “we usually don’t think it is great and won’t keep it in mind.”

Hearing that statement, don’t you wish you could take an inventory of everything you’d posted — even in groups you’re no longer a member? Unfortunately, the feature you are requesting is not available.

What Facebook has lost sight of is the basic principles that have made its customers comfortable from the beginning:

•Give each user a complete and accessible picture of everything that pertains to them on Facebook — every friend, every photo, every wall posting, every comment.

•Give users control over what pertains to them. If you want to take it down or make it private, you should be able to with ease.

•Make the default settings correspond with what most people want. We shouldn’t always have to be looking over our shoulder to feel comfortable in our own online community.

Facebook used to follow these simple rules, resulting in its growth and popularity. Now that it no longer consistently considers users’ privacy when it introduces a new feature, that trust has been undermined. I hope Facebook starts to take serious steps to win back that trust — starting by returning to the three principles it used to uphold. It would be a shame to lose what was once such a comfortable haven amidst the sprawling, faceless Internet.

You can contact Kai Stinchcombe by looking him up on Facebook, or by e-mailing kstinch@stanford.edu.