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Facebook's Plan To Automatically Share Your Data
Giosuele sends in this excerpt from TechCrunch:
"In anticipation of a slew of new features that will be launching at f8, today Facebook announced that it was once again making changes to its privacy policy. One of the biggest changes that Facebook is making involves applications and third-party websites. We've been hearing whispers from multiple sources about these changes, and the announcement all but confirms what Facebook is planning to do. In short, it sounds like Facebook is going to be automatically opting users into a reduced form of Facebook Connect on certain third party sites — a bold change that may well unnerve users, at least at first."
Letting all the users of slashdot access my friends ... I see trouble in future :P
Precisely for things like this.
I don't understand what is wrong with everyone on the internet. You cry about privacy but willingly give out your real-life information to these websites. Each and every one of these social networking websites exists for one purpose and that's to sell your information, your demographics to advertisers and generate revenue.
None of these sites are altruistic establishments who seek to serve the public good guarding one's privacy. At the end of the day you're engaging in opt-in Big Brother and it's far more disturbing than the advanced police state that exists in the UK and is growing in the United States of America.
Doesn't matter if you're using a throwaway freemail account because even then it's ridiculously easy to find one's real-life information. Just stop going there, delete your information and send their company a strongly-worded letter demanding they remove your information.
"You will dress only in attire specially sanctioned by M.I.B. special services. You'll conform to the identity we give you. Eat where we tell you. Live where we tell you.
From now on, you'll have no identifying marks of any kind. You will not stand out in any way.
Your entire image is crafted to leave no lasting memory with anyone you encounter. You are a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu, and dismissed just as quickly. You don't exist. You were never even born. Anonymity is your name, silence is your native tongue.
You are no longer part of the system. You are above the system, over it, beyond it. We're "them." We're "they." We are the Men in Black." - Zed, to Agent J & Agent K from the film "MEN IN BLACK"
See subject-line above...
If you reserve the right to burden Facebook with the truth about yourself and your most sensitive information, then they reserve the right to relieve themselves of that burden by revealing it to whomever they see fit.
The e-reward for e-trust.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
One thing faster than the speed of light is the frequency with which Facebook changes its privacy policy to suck in the unwary. (Units deliberately left undefined.)
Sexy Girl: FB Update - Just got out of the shower... LOCATION: 123 Main St. Creepy Man: FB Update - Just zipped up pants. 123 Main St. Broadview Security: Targeted Ad - Hey! Sexy Girl, Now is the time to think about home security!
And this comes as a surprise to anyone? The real danger is the proliferation of these services into everyday life. We already have examples of employers that demands access to prospective worker's Facebook accounts in real life. How long before you are viewed as being 'suspicious' for not having an account and sharing all your intimate details with the rest of the world? Everyone is doing it, why not you? Do you have anything to hide? I am also sure that Facebook themselves will in no way use the third-party data in order to track their users visits on other sites, would they?
Are third party sites any more capable of doing anything complex with this information than Facebook? The extent to which I noticed facebook profiled me is the ads on the side would say "free gifts if you're male, 67 years old and live in Sausageville". Let's face it (no pun intended), Facebook probably gives prospective advertisers and third-party sites looking to use profile information some complex sounding presentation about the way that break down demographics to the point that an individual can be uniquely identified 24 seconds before they even think about logging into Facebook. But really, 99% of ads are based on sex, age and where they live, I'm sure a lot more companies than Facebook know this information, I think we're somewhat over-estimating technology companies' ability to mine data. OK, once I told a FB friend to not be such a baby and they got some ads about gifts for new parents. Maybe we should have a social experiment where we try to affect the ads by what we post. "Man, I wish I could get a cheap rate mobile, easy date in my area , cartoonize myself" should be a good starting point...
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This user was referred to this thread via their Farmville syndication feed. Farmville automatically linked their fruit and vegetable interests to breaking world news and current affairs. Their response on Slashdot.org has been logged and helps us build up an in-depth profile of the deepest workings of their mind, thanks!
"After feedback from many of you".. Apparently Facebook is confusing "many" for "most" or "all".
Hopefully they won't partner with adult sites...
Richard is watching Porn Movie of the Day on SexSexSex.com, the dirty dirty bastard.
Summation 2
I'm pretty sure just giving peoples data out to third parties without their consent breaks the UK data protection rules...
Twitter/Facebook are flooded with advertisers so if you can't beat em join em. Use it as a press release page only.
They know my full name and the name of my wife; my birthday and home town and a google email address. That's it. What's the big deal about that? It's not like they have access to any of my bank details, credit cards, NI number, passport number, or anything that would really cause me grief if it got into the wrong hands.
Stop making a mountain out of a mole hill. Sheesh !
about the cranky losers who constantly trumpet the fact they don't have a television, whenever the subject comes up
however, i am now that cranky loser, for facebook: every time facebook comes up as an issue, i will trumpet the fact i don't have an account, and never will, and feel smugly superior for that fact
it's nothing but a bonfire of vanities. you're just not that interesting, none of us are, sorry
free your time and free yourself from endless navel gazing and obviously, get some privacy: lose facerbook, permanently. declare your freedom from shallowness and corporate exploitation
if you have real friends, they won't need this stupid contrivance to maintain their friendship with you. the rest are just acquaintances, not really friends, and you work far too hard to maintain some ridiculous fake mask for their sake. they don't really matter to the quality of your life, unless you're shallow, in which case you don't have that much quality of life to begin with
lose facebook. you're life will improve
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
So what? Everybody who gave all of their personal information to a new company willy-nilly technically agreed that they could change their policies at will.Sure, nobody reads all of the legal-ese, but you're voluntarily giving VALUABLE personal information to a FOR PROFIT company. What did people THINK would happen? Did people think that Facebook would, as a corporate entity say, "We don't really want the revenue from selling our users' information?" I don't understand how people can be so naive.
I don't respond to AC's.
a bold change that may well unnerve users, at least at first.
Now give me a moment while I slowly turn up the burner under my stew pot full of live frogs.
Have gnu, will travel.
Whoosh.
"I value my privacy. I've been very consistent about that. I've said it on my TV show, my Twitter feed, my Facebook page, my live web Colonoscopy cam."
- Stephen Colbert
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/267560/march-17-2010/united-states-census-2010
your response is not valid in the case when you are OPTED IN by default to have your previously restricted information given away
When Facebook adds a new feature that shares my information in a new way:
(a) Share my information automatically, I can stop sharing later
(b) Do not automatically share, I can begin sharing later.
That way those who care can keep their data private or at least not be surprised by the new way their data is being shared, and those who find that they enjoy sharing their data in new ways can always be on the cutting edge.
Once you set your default, you can go back at your leisure and change the setting to share or to not share. Usually you will not have to do anything because the default sets the sharing the way you like it.
Ob Disclaimer: I don't use Facebook or any of those other new-fangled things.
Their policy means nothing, since they can always change it on a whim. The only way to have control over your information and privacy is to control it yourself.
Anyone feel like making a distributed peer to peer facebook clone where each user runs (or at least has the ability to run) their own server?
See that "Preview" button?
..when you are OPTED IN by default..
'Opted in' doesn't mean what you think it means.
Certainly it is. Even if you are "opted-in", you can then "opt-out".
But it's irrelevant.
Most of the people bitching about this don't use FB. The people who do either don't care or "opt-out" as they are free to do.
It's a non-issue.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Why is it every time Facebook gets a new idea, everyone must scramble to update their settings - why not just assume people want to keep their information private?
Because the basic purpose of facebook is to share information. An assumption that you desire privacy is counter to the idea of using facebook.
Also its far more profitable to sell your information upfront before giving you the "opt out" choice than to only sell the information of the few people who choose to "opt in".
Facebook is going to be automatically opting users into...
The phrase 'automatically opting users into' sounds like someone just picked three words at random to postfix to automatically.
I use Facebook because a number of my friends do, but I did not use real information when signing up. My birthday, address, etc are not correct. My birthday is close, the city is different as is the zip code. Birth date and zip code are 2 of the primary ways credit card companies use to verify you when calling in (plus your SSN, which I give to no one). FB does not need this information and I do not provide it to anyone I don't have to. It's not paranoia, it's prudence.
I still cannot find the droids I am looking for...
Dislike!
I just closed and deleted my Facebook account. I'm sick of fussing over my profile and repeatedly having to reconfigure the site to NOT broadcast my information. Screw 'em.
Well... yes and no.
A large chunk of FB users might not know what this means and then not go through the effort of opting out, some might even use FB from their mobile phone most of the time (I know of a few of my friends who are on the road a lot and FB/Tweet from their phones) and might not know about this for a few weeks.
If the opt-out option is there it is certainly less of an issue than sensationalised in TFA, but there is still opportunity for peoples personal information that they would like to have restricted to FB to be shared on other sites and used by other companies who they did not give consent to.
Why not a default "opted out have to opt in" policy instead of an "opted in have to opt out" policy?
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
To be honest I don't care about the info I have on FB. All they have is my name, an incorrect birth date, a low resolution indication of my general location, and a list of people that I am linked with in some way. Nothing of much value to any third party that I can think of.
What does bother me though is the idea of someone passing on my information (whether I care about the information or not) for profit. I I'm to be hored out to the world I'll do the horing and have the profit thankyouverymuch. If someone else wants to try gain from my info maybe I'll let them, but it is only common curtsey to ask for permission rather than automatically opting me in.
From a technical point of view I assume this linking of you to your FB account (and from there to other information and linking information FB holds) is going to be done by the 3rd party web site making a client-side request to FB (this request, being client-side, would contain your FB session ID cookie value) which then redirects to a script on the 3rd party site with some sort of session ID that can be used to make further requests to FB server side. This would not be difficult to block if you run a cleaning proxy (strip out requests to FB pages from with pages that were not served from an FB server to start with) or simply by using a separate browser. By "separate" I mean really separate: not common add-ons for instance (flash cookies, if you aren't in the habit of blocking flash by default, are cross-browser and even survive through "private browsing" mods) - true separation might mean having to run it in a VM or some such construct (which may, in turn, mean I can't be bothered enough for the hassle).
If I were to ever see signs that a site had gone prying into what information there is about be out there I would never revisit that site or those relating to it, and would recommend that my contacts do the same. Unfortunately I'm in a minority - most people are not as bitter, anal, and vindictive enough to carry out threats of "never coming back" so in the long run my avoidance of such sites won't make much difference to them in the grand scheme of things.
A large chunk of FB users might not know what this means and then not go through the effort of opting out...
We hate it when Government tries to play Big Daddy and tell us what to do like children, how about we all let people fend for themselves with Facebook? They send out an email letting users know about things like this. If FB users can't figure it out, well, there's more trouble than this brewing for them. I think most will have a clue. Most will do nothing as is their right, the rest will lock things down or stop using FB. Choice!
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
they opt you in and lob your information to all their partners. then you come along after notification and opt out. see the problem?
Case in point: Users clicking on dodge links or opening dangerous attachments in e-mails.
Or how about people STILL falling for those 419 emails? Heck Oprah had a show dedicated to it and yet people STILL fall for the most basic scams.
Why would someone who ignores a notice from their bank not to send out personal information or reply to a mail asking for their banking details take heed of a facebook mail telling them they can opt out from giving personal information?
You have to cater to the lowest common denominator and work yourself up from there.
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
I noticed several Facebook apps that allow you to see who is reading your home page and how many times. In other words, your Facebook browsing habits are available to random apps which then publish it to the world. And there is no opt in or opt out for this.
This is like google letting every one see the keywords you typed in alongside your name and photo.
Facebook is evil.
I know exactly what you mean! I feel the same way about the telephone!
Sure you can use it to keep up with friends and family who live far away, but that's what letters are for. If you have real friends, they wont need this contrivance to maintain their friendship with you. And think about all the things you'll be able to talk about as if they were new if they come to visit. Ah the joys of limited connectivity!
And I mean, talk about annoying! I know that as soon as I install one in my house, it's gonna start ringing, interrupting work, interrupting dinner, interrupting sleep. And nine times out of ten it's going to be someone I don't know trying to sell me something I don't need. And what do you want to bet that the phone company isn't listening in?
That's why I say,
lose the telephone, you're (sic) life will improve
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
Why is it every time Facebook gets a new idea, everyone must scramble to update their settings
Because it's far easier for the site to make money that way, and they really don't care about your privacy (although it is wise for them to maintain the facade of caring).
Because most people are too stupid and / or lazy to be bothered to mess with the privacy controls. Facebook knows this, and exploits it (like many other sites) to build their pool of demographic / advertising data. That's why the controls are generally buried several menus deep and hard to find. It's no different than being subscribed to an online vendor's email newsletter by default unless you *uncheck* that box during checkout. Every time Facebook adds a new feature, it gives them another chance to add to the pool and increase their ad revenue. And you can't blame them really, being that the service is free for its users and selling ads is their primary revenue source.
"a bold change that may well unnerve users, at least at first."
i think i used a similar line to talk my gf into anal
About a year ago, a friend of mine sent me a facebook invite - which I politely declined. However, the email that came with it knew my wife and anyone else who was in my email list who had a facebook account. It was even kind enough to give me pictures of them (so much for my friends saying "they are careful about their privacy - they don't give out any details").
I don't use facebook and won't use facebook because I am highly concerned about the long term privacy concerns. When you logon, how long you spend, topics you discuss, etc. Do you really want people knowing THAT much about you?
AC
PS I'm wearing red underpants today. I told you that because I wanted to know how it feels to be a facebook user - and sharing all sorts of personal data with the rest of the world.
declare your freedom from shallowness and miss out on slashdot comments, too ?
That's interesting.
Your address is in CA and your phone number is from Tennessee?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_code_901
Yahoo maps says there is no Maple Ave in San Diego.
So you are demonstrating the point of how easy it is to frame someone?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Correction. Selling their user's data to anyone who's willing to pay (spammers anyone?) is their primary revenue source. Any advertisement slots they sell on the site itself is just a secondary revenue stream, and considering the amount of people using ad-blocking of some sort, negligible.
@Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
"...why not just assume people want to keep their information private?"
Because that doesn't make money. Exploiting and making public any personal information people offer is how they make money. It's the only way they can make money. They have a fiduciary duty to their stakeholders to do so. Telling them not to do so is like telling water not to be wet.
Bibo Ergo Sum.
Maybe my post wasn't as humorous as I had expected, but I've never seen somebody put so much effort into not getting a joke!
Also, who am I framing for what now?
Fnord.
is unimportant, and we do not hear him.