Comments on: Privacy and Facebook

By: Kim Taylor

Kim Taylor — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:56:26 +0000

On December 9th, Facebook launched its new privacy features. In many ways, I feel that I had much more control over my privacy under the old platform. I am a PC Security Specialist so had no problem using the old privacy settings but I understand how other users did. I don’t use the apps though due to their third party developer policy. It seems that FB has now provided a one size fits all solution leaving many users exposed with some default settings. For example, it is now possible in many instances to view personal info of friends of friends and they are probably totally unaware. Many users are also being indexed by search engines without realizing it. You use to be able to customize the viewing of your friends list but now have very limited control over this. It appears more info is now publicly available. I’m not saying that sharing isn’t good as long as you have some control over who you share with. We don’t want a Twitter style platform which is mostly self-promoting and impersonal. We want to be able to share fun things with our friends not the entire Internet community nor identity thieves. I think that you should look into these new privacy settings. Here’s a great article on the changes: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/facebooks-new-privacy-changes-good-bad-and-ugly

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:37:25 +0000

According to this:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/facebooks-new-privacy-changes-good-bad-and-ugly , you can’t opt out of the “sharing” of your information with Facebook apps (and also the information of your friends). It seems like things may have gotten worse, not better. Many bloggers and commentators are upset about this. See for example http://calacanis.com/2009/12/13/is-facebook-unethical-clueless-or-unlucky/

By: Zak Muscovitch

Zak Muscovitch — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:13:25 +0000

The intervention of the Privacy Commissioner was of course groundbreaking in that it represents a public interest in otherwise private social networks. This issue raises a larger question, and that is whether social networks, aka online communities, have reached a point where they serve an important public interest and users expect certain rights as members aka citizens of such communities. Is it time for a Charter of Rights for members of social networks? I wrote a small opinion piece on the subject here: http://dnattorney.com/2009/09/facebook-takedowns.html#links

By: Jose

Jose — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:03:58 +0000

Facebook is a great tool, but is must be used carefully

By: Milan

Milan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:08:28 +0000

Normally, I am in favour of mechanisms to protect privacy and sympathetic to the fact that technology makes that harder to achieve. Facebook, I think, is different. As with a personal site, everything being posted is being intentionally put into the public domain. Those who think they have privacy on Facebook are being deluded and those who act as though information posted there is private are being foolish. The company should be more open about both facts, but I think they are within their rights to distribute or even sell the information they are collecting.

The best advice for Facebook users is to keep the information posted trivial, and maintain the awareness that whatever finds its way online is likely to remain in someone’s records forever.

By: FaintFuzzies.ca » Blog Archive » Privacy In The Age Of Social Networking

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:47:01 +0000

[...] by Jesse Brown, Canada may become the first country to make some parts of Facebook illegal. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is looking into where Facebook and/or the apps that are use in it transgres Canadian privacy law. [...]

By: Colin McKay

Colin McKay — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:58:29 +0000

Wow. Thank you for developing the handy app, but that comment really comes across like a piece of spam. It doesn’t even acknowledge the content of the post.

I almost deleted it.

By: ACLU of Northern California

ACLU of Northern California — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:41:27 +0000

Want to understand what this all means and how to change your Facebook privacy settings now to better protect your personal information? Check out the ACLU of Northern California Facebook Privacy Quiz at http://apps.facebook.com/aclunc_privacy_quiz/

More info at our blog at http://www.aclunc.org/techblog.