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Senators Tell Facebook To Quit Sharing Users' Info

Posted by kdawson on from the in-your-heart-you-know-it's-wrong dept.

Hugh Pickens notes a USA Today story reporting that two US senators have joined Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in telling Facebook to quit sharing more of its users' data than they signed up for. Politico.com ups USA Today's ante, saying that it was three more senators, not two more, who joined Schumer's call: Michael Bennet (D-CO), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Al Franken (D-MN). The senators are asking the FTC to look at Facebook's controversial new information-sharing policies, arguing that the massively popular social network overstepped its bounds when it began sharing user data with other websites. Sen. Schumer said he learned about the new rules from his daughter, who is in law school, but added that he's noticed no difference on his own Facebook page, which, he assured reporters, "is very boring." "I can attest to that," deadpanned Franken, who made his living as a comedian before entering the Senate, and whose Facebook followers outnumber Schumer's by ten to one.

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Allow us to "opt-in" by ircmaxell · · Score: 4, Informative

    This. If they said it in the beginning, that's one thing. But telling us one thing, then later changing it and saying "well, all you need to do is tell us not to" is nothing more than a slimy practice. And I don't buy the "Well, we told you that we reserved the right to do it" argument. If they added controls to "opt-out" today, then they are acknowledging that there's more to it than what was written initially. What's the difference between that, and me going up to you on a busy street and saying "If you don't tell me no, your house is now mine" even if you didn't even hear it? Isn't that basically what they are doing here?

    --
    If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good
  2. Re:turnabout? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Senators aren't telling people how to use Facebook, they're telling Facebook how (not) to use their customer's data.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  3. Re:It's kind of sad... by mweather · · Score: 5, Informative

    It amazes me that he ever made any sort of a living as a "comedian", given that his entire "funny" schtick (yes, I read his books... *shudder*) is calling his political opponents foul-mouthed names

    You do realise the man was one of the original writers for SNL, right? He didn't get into political comedy until his comedy career's third decade.