MySpace To Sell User Data

OnlyJedi writes "Hot on the news of Netflix canceling its latest contest over privacy concerns, news has spread that MySpace is going in the opposite direction. Apparently, the one-time leading social network is now selling user data to third party collection firms. From the article, the data that InfoChimps has listed includes 'user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes.' InfoChimps is a reseller that deals with individuals and groups, from academic researchers to marketers and industry analysts. So if you're worried about your data on MySpace being sold off to anybody with a few hundred dollars, now's the time to delete that little-used account."

Comments

Re:So you think its really that easy?

[dunezone]

The only way I can think of removing your information is to edit your profile with random information that makes sense but is generic. Replace all critical information such as addresses or phone numbers with fake addresses. Remove all photos and just have a few generic stock photos. The idea is to make the account look legit but with no information that can be used against you.

This will correct the issue of current viewable information. Next you need to lock down your profile with as much security as possible, disable messages, turn on approvals for anything, lock it down like Fort Knox so it stays static as long as possible.

Now comes the part you have no control over. You need to let the account sit for months if not years. Over time they (Myspace or Facebook) will need to purge older backups and can only keep current relevant information. So now the older backups are over-written and being written into the system is your current BS profile, but this can take months to years to do and that depends on how much Myspace/Facebook or any social site is willing to retain.

Whatever you do, don't just delete the account or use their automated deletion system cause that's not really doing the job you want. That most likely puts it into a special repository for recoveries in case you want to come back.

Re:So you think its really that easy?

[B'Trey]

There is nothing you can do to ensure that data you've already entered is gone. Even if you delete photos and change the info, there's no guarantee that the previous info is not stored. That being said, I deleted my account when I saw this earlier this morning on another site. When they asked me why I was deleting the account, I checked "Privacy concerns." In the comments section, I pasted a quote from the article noting what they were selling and followed it up with a single word: Bye. If enough people do this, Facebook will get the message that users are unhappy with this decision, even if deleting the account doesn't protect already-entered data.