The Facebook backlash has begun. But it's not really a backlash in the traditional sense, more of a reality check. The last few days have seen a cacophony of Facebook stories where partying innocents are turned into martyrs by judgemental employers pointing fingers at Facebook pictures.

The problem of judgement by Facebook is that people are rarely shown in their best light. In the 119 pictures tagged of me on Facebook, I'm either drunk or - worse still - look young enough not to have even left school. And then there's my clothes! Potential for embarrassment is high.

I'm in the happy position that my boss doesn't give a monkey's about how many pints I drank in 1999. But fast forward to 2007 and we have the case of Oxford students partying hard after finishing their exams - also very much in 2007. And, because Dons can also belong to the Oxford University network, the default privacy settings mean the shaving cream and flour-covered students have been the victims of a very public witch hunt.

In conversation with another technology journalist and a PR person recently, the subject of Facebook came up (after a couple of beers). We agreed that we would join each other's Facebooks as we now know each other. But where do you draw the line? These work contacts are now able to see said pictures of me from 1999. While that's not too much of an issue for me as a Web 2.0-loving tech journo who knows how to edit his privacy settings (in other words, don't even bother looking) I can imagine it would be an issue if I wore a suit and tie to work, got paid five times what I do and had to visit clients worth billions.

I can imagine too, it's a problem for teachers, police officers, doctors (I have some of each among my Facebook friends) or indeed anybody with a respectable job unlike mine. And that's where I come to my point. Facebook needs to do something to get the privacy message across to its near-30 million users.

Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, told Reuters this week that users want greater control over who can view their personal information - rather than expecting anonymity. "Privacy is beginning to transform from the classic 'right to be left alone' to this notion that 'I want control over my information,'" Kelly said.

So the laissez fare approach then. And while that's OK for me and for most university students, people need to know how to exert the control he is talking about. And the only way to do that is to reign back some of the openness of Facebook, lock down some of the defaults.

That, by default, anyone in the London network can see another London resident's photos, videos or personal details is surely too much. If it doesn't do something, a real Facebook backlash will surely occur when mass workplace castigations have taken place and people feel too restricted to post up their Saturday exploits on Brighton beach.

If it doesn't get tighter, Facebook might just come apart at the seams.