A new site called Openbook has launched that publishes unprotected Facebook status updates for all to see. The site scans the social network and exposes the widespread failure of users to implement the social network’s complicated privacy settings

It’s likely that the site will face the same criticism as Unvarnished (the US start-up that allows you to rate and ‘review’ other people), as Openbook aggregates the thousands of public status updates posted each and every minute to build catalogues of the posts that authors may later come to regret.

There are also similarities between Openbook and Lamebook, the latter aiming to pick out the ‘Funny Facebook Statuses, Fails, LOLs and More’, though tending to black out the names of those involved to protect privacy. Openbook on the other hand allows you to search by name or keyword.

Louis Halpern, CEO of Halpern Cowan, told us that the real story here is that some Facebook users are feeling so frustrated with the site and its management that they just skip straight past the company’s own complaints system and create a hard-hitting protest site. “They obviously feel that this is the only way their concerns will be listened to. This is hardly surprising when you consider that time and again Zuckerberg and his company have been seen to press ahead with their agenda despite widespread public protest.”

There have been various high-profile examples of staff getting fired after being caught complaining about their job online, whether it’s on Facebook or elsewhere. This new site essentially makes it even easier for an employer to view what many people may assume are private insight into their personal life.

Openbook’s creators claim the site is a deliberate protest against Zuckerberg and Facebook. Both have faced heavy fire for the handling of privacy issues surrounding the collection and distribution of supposedly private information in recent months.

Halpern added that though OpenBook’s creators claim they’re performing a kind of national service with their site, that’s not really the issue. “The amount of personal or sensitive data floating around on open statuses may simply be more evidence that Mark Zuckerberg is right when he says that we no longer ‘care’ about this kind of privacy and are happy to ‘share ourselves’.”

For brands, the ability to search Facebook by keyword for free could be construed as a positive, but let’s face it, when things become easier to find – that means complaints about a business or service are just as easy to source.