Sunday, May 9, 2010
Privacy Rights : Violations at Facebook -- as reported by the New York Times
It seems like a never-ending string of violations of privacy rights by social networking platforms.
Jenna Wortham at the New York Times reports on the newest Facebook incursion on privacy rights at Glitch Brings New Worries About Facebook’s Privacy:
Jenna Wortham at the New York Times reports on the newest Facebook incursion on privacy rights at Glitch Brings New Worries About Facebook’s Privacy:
"On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations."The newest "glitch" comes on the heels of previous privacy rights violations at Facebook which suggest that no user should put sensitive information of any kind into the hands of social networking portals. As Wortham writes:
"Over the last few months, Facebook has introduced changes that encourage users to make their photos and other information accessible to anyone on the Internet.... Facebook began prompting users to link information in their profile pages, like their hobbies and hometowns, in a way that makes that information public.Read the whole article here.
That last change prompted the Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group, to file a complaint on Wednesday with the Federal Trade Commission.
“Facebook continues to manipulate the privacy settings of users and its own privacy policy so that it can take personal information provided by users for a limited purpose and make it widely available for commercial purposes,” Marc Rotenberg, the group’s executive director, said in a letter to the commission."
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Business Week Reports that Facebook Policies Draw Criticism by Consumer Groups
Douglas MacMillan for Bloomberg at BusinessWeek.com in Facebook Policies Draw Criticism by Consumer Groups (Update2, which Adds FTC comment in seventh paragraph) writes:
Read the whole posting by MacMillan here.
"Recent changes at Facebook “violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook’s own representations,” said Marc Rotenberg, who runs the Electronic Privacy Information Center, one of 15 groups that complained about Facebook in a filing with the Federal Trade Commission late yesterday."We agree that Facebook Inc. has greatly overstepped permissibile bounds and that new privacy laws in the United States are essential to counteract a stream of negative privacy developments in social networking.
Read the whole posting by MacMillan here.
EFF: Facebook Tries to Make User Use of Aggregating Services Into Criminal Trespassing Violations
At EFF Seeks to Protect Innovation for Social Network Users: Facebook Tries to Make Violations of Terms of Use Into Criminal Violations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes:
Claire Cain Miller, Bits, New York Times, Facebook Is No Friend of Power.com
... and
Niall Kennedy's Weblog, Facebook v. Power Ventures and Data Portability, Authentication, and Authorization
Essentially, Facebook wants to deny users the ability to use aggregating services to connect to Facebook and to force every user to connect to Facebook only in the manner that Facebook dictates. Pure tyranny.
The more we learn about Facebook, the less we like what we see. Facebook apparently thinks it is permitted to do anything it wants while it attempts to keep its competition from doing anything that might reduce Facebook power. We predict that this philosophy will down the road end in severe legal sanctions against Facebook, who is otherwise trying to run roughshod over user privacy. Suing power.com for trespassing while at the the same time engaging in its own -- what we regard to be criminal -- privacy invasion of its users data has got to take the cake.
"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging a federal judge to dismiss Facebook's claims that criminal law is violated when its users opt for an add-on service that helps them aggregate their information from a variety of social networking sites.See:
"California's computer crime law is aimed at penalizing computer trespassers," said EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. "Users who choose to give their usernames and passwords to aggregators like Power Ventures are not trespassing. Under Facebook's theory, millions of Californians who disregard or don't read terms of service on the websites they visit could face criminal liability. Also, any Internet company could use this argument as a hammer to prevent its users from easily leaving the service as well as to shut down innovators and competitors."
Claire Cain Miller, Bits, New York Times, Facebook Is No Friend of Power.com
... and
Niall Kennedy's Weblog, Facebook v. Power Ventures and Data Portability, Authentication, and Authorization
Essentially, Facebook wants to deny users the ability to use aggregating services to connect to Facebook and to force every user to connect to Facebook only in the manner that Facebook dictates. Pure tyranny.
The more we learn about Facebook, the less we like what we see. Facebook apparently thinks it is permitted to do anything it wants while it attempts to keep its competition from doing anything that might reduce Facebook power. We predict that this philosophy will down the road end in severe legal sanctions against Facebook, who is otherwise trying to run roughshod over user privacy. Suing power.com for trespassing while at the the same time engaging in its own -- what we regard to be criminal -- privacy invasion of its users data has got to take the cake.
What Not to Post on Facebook and Other Social Networks to Protect Your Privacy
In the Los Angeles Times at Internet Security 101: What not to post on Facebook Alex Pham provides us with a list of seven things which, according to Consumer Report, you should "stop doing now" on social networks to protect your privacy.
The Great Exploiter: Facebook Moves from Social Networking to Social Exploitation: How to Opt Out of Facebook Sharing YOUR Personal Data with the Rest of the World in Order to Make Money FOR THEM
At MyFoxNY.com in Facebook to Share Your Information for Money, we discovered that Facebook is beginning to use, indeed, share with the world -- YOUR data -- in order to make money for the company, a practice totally contrary to the original social networking purpose of the Facebook website.
This is an incredible invasion of privacy which takes Facebook totally out of the ranks of "social networking" and into abusive and we think possibly criminal "social exploitation".
You are warned.
Here is how to OPT OUT of having your personal information shared all over the web:
1: Go to your Facebook page
2. Click on "Privacy Settings" under the menu item "Account".
3. Click on "Applications and Web Sites".
4. Find "Instant Personalization Pilot Program" and click on "Edit Setting".
5.Typical for the evil of this feature at Facebook is that the "opt out" statement is in tiny print at the bottom of the page and reads "Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites." This is checked with a checkmark by default -- a default which we think should be a per se criminal violation of privacy rights. Uncheck that statement to keep Facebook from using YOU as their meal ticket.
Warning: If your friends decide to share THEIR information and you have not blocked them from sharing YOUR information, then YOUR information can still also be shared with 3rd-party websites by your friends without your intending that sharing.
To cut off that possibility, proceed as follows:
1: Go to your Facebook page
2. Click on “Privacy Settings" under the menu item "Account".”
3. Click on “Applications and Web Sites.”
4. Find "What your friends can share about you" and click on "Edit Settings"
5. Remove the check mark from all of the items on the list that are not essential. When you use Facebook and miss something you really want to have, then you can always go back and check an optional feature that you want to have.
Dropdown lists that mask the "Only Me" Privacy Option with a "Custom edit" option.
One of the most seriously infringing aspects of Facebook is illustrated by the menu item "Applications and Web Sites” (there are other such cases too) which has "Activity on Applications and Games Dashboards" in its dropdown list. That dropdown list shows only THREE specific options: "Everyone, Friends of Friends, Only Friends" plus a fourth option called "Custom edit". ONLY If you click that last option are you then given a new dropdown list with the option of clicking "Specific people..." or "Only me". Why the privacy selection of "only me" is not given immediately to begin with in the first dropdown list is clear -- users are not "supposed" to use that option, so Facebook makes it harder for you, the user, to find it. Obviously, checking "Only me" has nothing to do with a "custom" edit. Diabolical.
You also have to control all of the check boxes under the various tab headings at the "Account Settings" in the dropdown list under the menu item "Account".
The tab headings are Settings, Networks, Notifications, Mobile, Language, Payments, and Facebook Ads.
Under Settings you will see Name, Username, Email, Password, Linked Accounts, Security Question, Privacy, Account Security, Deactivate Account. Check everything.
Under Networks you can enter a network, which we do not recommend. We have tried it and you merely expose yourself to a great number of people you do not know.
Under Notifications, there are currently no fewer than SEVENTY-TWO check boxes that can be check or unchecked in the following areas (talk about creating confusion pure):
* Facebook
* Photos
* Groups
* Pages
* Events
* Notes
* Links
* Video
* Gifts
* Help Center
* Wall Comments
* Other updates from Facebook
* Translations
* Other Applications
Examine these carefully and check only things you really NEED. All of those check-box options are not there for your benefit, rather, they are intended to make things such a mass of confusion so that something beneficial for Facebook will sneak through unnoticed.
IMPORTANT! Another feature of Facebook that is diabolical is that in some cases check marks are effective when made -- i.e. without any other clicking, but in other cases at Facebook, however, even if you make or remove the check marks you still have to SAVE the page in order to save your check mark settings. Notifications is one such page. If you go to the exhausting job of customizing those 72 check-mark settings and then think you have it done, if you do not scroll this page all the way down to the bottom and click the Save Changes button, it was all for nothing. The checkbox settings then revert to the default setting - with everything checked. There is method in this madness.
Check also everything under the other tabs:
Mobile (you can activate Facebook to send you text messages -- at your risk)
Language (set your Facebook language)
Payments (something we avoid, if possible)
and
Facebook Ads, which writes as follows (LOOK OUT !!!!!):
In any case, our first impression of Facebook is being confirmed -- raw social exploitation.
This is an incredible invasion of privacy which takes Facebook totally out of the ranks of "social networking" and into abusive and we think possibly criminal "social exploitation".
You are warned.
Here is how to OPT OUT of having your personal information shared all over the web:
1: Go to your Facebook page
2. Click on "Privacy Settings" under the menu item "Account".
3. Click on "Applications and Web Sites".
4. Find "Instant Personalization Pilot Program" and click on "Edit Setting".
5.Typical for the evil of this feature at Facebook is that the "opt out" statement is in tiny print at the bottom of the page and reads "Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites." This is checked with a checkmark by default -- a default which we think should be a per se criminal violation of privacy rights. Uncheck that statement to keep Facebook from using YOU as their meal ticket.
Warning: If your friends decide to share THEIR information and you have not blocked them from sharing YOUR information, then YOUR information can still also be shared with 3rd-party websites by your friends without your intending that sharing.
To cut off that possibility, proceed as follows:
1: Go to your Facebook page
2. Click on “Privacy Settings" under the menu item "Account".”
3. Click on “Applications and Web Sites.”
4. Find "What your friends can share about you" and click on "Edit Settings"
5. Remove the check mark from all of the items on the list that are not essential. When you use Facebook and miss something you really want to have, then you can always go back and check an optional feature that you want to have.
Dropdown lists that mask the "Only Me" Privacy Option with a "Custom edit" option.
One of the most seriously infringing aspects of Facebook is illustrated by the menu item "Applications and Web Sites” (there are other such cases too) which has "Activity on Applications and Games Dashboards" in its dropdown list. That dropdown list shows only THREE specific options: "Everyone, Friends of Friends, Only Friends" plus a fourth option called "Custom edit". ONLY If you click that last option are you then given a new dropdown list with the option of clicking "Specific people..." or "Only me". Why the privacy selection of "only me" is not given immediately to begin with in the first dropdown list is clear -- users are not "supposed" to use that option, so Facebook makes it harder for you, the user, to find it. Obviously, checking "Only me" has nothing to do with a "custom" edit. Diabolical.
You also have to control all of the check boxes under the various tab headings at the "Account Settings" in the dropdown list under the menu item "Account".
The tab headings are Settings, Networks, Notifications, Mobile, Language, Payments, and Facebook Ads.
Under Settings you will see Name, Username, Email, Password, Linked Accounts, Security Question, Privacy, Account Security, Deactivate Account. Check everything.
Under Networks you can enter a network, which we do not recommend. We have tried it and you merely expose yourself to a great number of people you do not know.
Under Notifications, there are currently no fewer than SEVENTY-TWO check boxes that can be check or unchecked in the following areas (talk about creating confusion pure):
* Photos
* Groups
* Pages
* Events
* Notes
* Links
* Video
* Gifts
* Help Center
* Wall Comments
* Other updates from Facebook
* Translations
* Other Applications
Examine these carefully and check only things you really NEED. All of those check-box options are not there for your benefit, rather, they are intended to make things such a mass of confusion so that something beneficial for Facebook will sneak through unnoticed.
IMPORTANT! Another feature of Facebook that is diabolical is that in some cases check marks are effective when made -- i.e. without any other clicking, but in other cases at Facebook, however, even if you make or remove the check marks you still have to SAVE the page in order to save your check mark settings. Notifications is one such page. If you go to the exhausting job of customizing those 72 check-mark settings and then think you have it done, if you do not scroll this page all the way down to the bottom and click the Save Changes button, it was all for nothing. The checkbox settings then revert to the default setting - with everything checked. There is method in this madness.
Check also everything under the other tabs:
Mobile (you can activate Facebook to send you text messages -- at your risk)
Language (set your Facebook language)
Payments (something we avoid, if possible)
and
Facebook Ads, which writes as follows (LOOK OUT !!!!!):
"Facebook does not give third party applications or ad networks the right to use your name or picture in ads. If this is allowed in the future, this setting will govern the usage of your information."If Facebook follows past practice this "allowed in the future" will be a default check mark permitting the use of your name and photo for some advertised product or service unless you opt out. Again, we think this default "opt in" practice would be illegal -- even under current privacy laws -- as an invasion of privacy of the worst kind.
In any case, our first impression of Facebook is being confirmed -- raw social exploitation.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
The Full Story: How Facebook Was Founded
How Facebook Was Founded: The Full Story
by Nicholas Carlson, March 5, 2010
by Nicholas Carlson, March 5, 2010
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