EPIC Files FTC Complaint Over Facebook's New Privacy Policy

An anonymous reader writes "The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to investigate the recent changes made by Facebook to the privacy settings of Facebook users. The complaint discusses the sharing of user information with third-party developers and the new, widely-opposed 'Everyone' setting, which allows certain user information, such as name, profile picture, and friends lists, to be publicly available. EPIC also urges the FTC to compel Facebook to restore privacy safeguards. The complaint was signed by nine privacy and consumer organizations."

Comments

Facebook has never been private

[betterunixthanunix]

They just maintain an illusion of privacy, that's all.

Re:Facebook has never been private

[Thinboy00]

No, some information is IIRC forced public (like your name and picture).

Prediction

[whisper_jeff]

Prediction: In response to these new privacy concerns, Facebook will change their privacy policy, tightening up security over the information people are concerned about. At the same time, they will loosen security over other information, starting a new wave of complaints.

Let's be real - this is, what, the fourth or fifth time this sort of thing has happened and every time it does, Facebook changes their policy by tightening "here" while loosening "there". This will be no different.

Re:Prediction

[medv4380]

True, but arnt all social networking sites about exposing your privacy online anyway?

Re:Prediction

[aztracker1]

Wish I had some mod points for this one. The whole premise of a "social network" is that 3rd party friends can connect... Eventually everyone is connected to everyone, especially Kevin Bacon.

Friends list

[TheMeuge]

Please tell me how I can make it so that my name, profile picture, and friends list would not be publicly available (short of quitting facebook).

kthnxbye

Re:Friends list

[mea37]

As I've posted many times, I think it's a bit absurd to expect info you put on FB to be private in anything more than a "lock to keep your siblings out of your diary" sense. However, I do get sick of them making changes that loosen the privacy settings of existing users who probably had things set the way they wanted them for a reason.

And more on point, I'm tired of people making demonstrably false arguments, even if they are trying to support arguably reasonable conclusions, which brings me to parent's post.

Facebook is useless unless you publish your picture and friends list to everyone? Not seeing that one. I never published my friends list or picture; I could still be found. Even if I hid my name, I could still use FB to communicate with people I chose to communicate with.

If you think the only use for Facebook is to make it easy for people to find you, then you're not really using the majority of FB's functionality.

Re:Decisions, decisions.

[zorg50]

Let's see, we can either sue somebody, or use the helpful selection screen to change our privacy settings back to the way they were.

Facebook has removed the ability for users to opt out of publicly sharing certain information, including their profile photo, networks, and sex. I have every privacy setting set to "Friends Only" or "Friends of Friends," but those things are still publicly viewable in my profile.

Why the FTC?

[quangdog]

I fully admit I'm pretty uninformed on this stuff - but why the FTC? What can they do about it? What control or influence do they have over what a private business does with their member's website?

Re:What is the deal?

[Nightspirit]

There have been numerous reports of people being fired for relatively innocuous facebook pictures which didn't really have much to do with their work. One particular case had a Quebec woman lose her disability insurance for depression, because she had a facebook picture of her going to the beach. These may be an exception, but it demonstrates how an employer or the government can get into your private life in a way that wasn't previously possible.

I have a facebook profile but I rarely post and when I do I make sure it is information that could never harm me in any way.

I think this is an improvement

[magloca]

Ever since I, somewhat reluctantly, started using Facebook, I have followed the simple policy of making everything I post as public as possible, while simply not posting anything I don't want any random web surfer to see. If this change will make more people snap out of their false sense of Facebook privacy, all the better, I say.

Leg to stand on?

[pedrop357]

If users don't like certain privacy policies, they can restore their privacy by leaving the privately owned site whose policy(ies) they disagree with.

Can someone sue because facebook allows photos to be right-clicked and saved? What if they started with some flash based photo system that didn't allow "easy" saving and later transitioned to one that did? Would that warrant a complaint to the FTC?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Oh teh Noes!

[GrumblyStuff]

I disagree. With as much personal identification as Facebook has, they should be taking a cautionary, responsible approach with how that information is collected, shared, used, and deleted.

If they can't, then, yes, they need oversight.

Re:Oh teh Noes!

[Requiem18th]

I'll grant the point about construction codes because of the gas pipes although as a IT person it sounds like securing a network WAN by controlling every node what kind of boggled architecture is that?

But I don't buy it about restaurants, nothing should prevent clients to get into the kitchen and asses for themselves the quality of the food, further more that says nothing about prohibitions on gambling, prostitution, marijuana, crack, heroine, cocaine, etc. And not only are many things prohibited to under-aged people, the states prevents me from supplying them with alcohol or the like, effectively telling me how I can raise my children.

I'm not saying this things are good, what I'm saying is that we do accept having the government tell us what we can't do for our own good, so there is nothing funtamentaly wrong about a non profit suing facebook and having the government enforce better privacy controls.

facebook is not a startup in some kid's garage. it's a huge billionaire corporation, it collects more information than the NSA for the FSM's sake! Let the government regulate the hell out of it.