What is one of the signs that freedom is shrinking? It is the seemingly innocuous request by any type of leadership to have people turn in their friends over supposed ‘violations’ of the government or the governing body. It’s a sad time when this type of environment is perpetuated whether it’s in a country or a service that has enough people to be almost the largest country on the planet.

So what service are we talking about? Well, let’s see, here’s a few hints and see if we can figure this out. It’s a privacy concern and the tactic being used by the company looks heavy handed and probably makes people feel uncomfortable. Go ahead, just guess. Yup, you got it, Facebook.

Remember back when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg declared that frictionless sharing was the future? I remember that I was repulsed at the idea and the following proliferation of apps from the likes of the Washington Post, Yahoo and SocialCam confirmed just how annoying the whole thing would turn out to be despite Mr. Zuckerberg’s crystal ball act that told us what we liked and how we would like it.

Well, it didn’t take too long (around a year or so) for Facebook to realize that maybe people aren’t that interested in being constantly bombarded with everything that their friends are doing, reading or listening to after all. Yesterday, as Buzzfeed reports, there was a bit of an ‘about face’ announced.