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Facebook Privacy Boosted As Private Message 'Leak' Is Dismissed
judgecorp writes "Claims that old private Facebook messages have been leaking onto people's Timelines have been dismissed by the French privacy watchdog, CNIL. Apparently, as many concluded early on, the "leaked" messages were just old Wall-to-Wall posts, that users had mistakenly believed were private. Given the lack of user understanding, now is a good time for Facebook to revamp its privacy help pages. Let's hope users pay attention, and Facebook genuinely resists exploiting their naivety." Update: 10/04 17:42 GMT by T : Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on Facebook; Mark Zuckerberg says keeping up with a billion users makes it tough to follow all that data.
I did. Facebook nicely announces new posts on Slashdot on my wall.
this post on /. is private. Now i can discuss CmdrTaco's sexual proclivities without embarrassing him!
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Facebook is a publicly traded corporation. Their product is you. They gather info on you, your friends, your family, your buying habits, political affiliations, pet peeves, pets and sell that to advertisers and government agencies.
the question is "Boosted from what?". A terribly intrusive data-mining operation?
Why did this take so long to get put on slashdot? This was figured out... the day it happened? Thanks, French agency! Timely, as always!
The comment : "Let's hope users pay attention," is an absolute fantasy. People spend more time on "computers" (aka interfacing with a "smart device" to check facebook 24/7) than I do, and I make games!
Their help pages? THEIR HELP PAGES? How about they just change their policy on collecting as much data as they can from their users and then selling it to anyone anywhere ever or governments, in which case it's free and more extensive.
When this first started being posted around facebook, I had a few friends that insisted their actual private messages were being displayed, even after being presented with evidence to the contrary.
I do find it interesting that so many of us users have essentially forgotten or misremembered how our facebook socializing has changed with updates over the years.
LegendMUD
Surely we can all agree that "Facebook Privacy" is an oxymoron.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
I remember checking into the claim of a security change when the claim was first made. It was easily disproven by checking my Facebook E-mail notifications from 2007. Every message that had been identified as a private message was not on my wall, and every message that was on my wall had been identified as a wall post.
Hi Rob,
God you really got out of this hell hole on time. That cocksucker from Dice Holdings walks around like he's the king or something. Chrissake he told me to come on time tomorrow! And of course sourceforge is acting up and the guys over there aren't so chummy anymore, we're just another user to them.
Say, do you remember where we put the design document on the private messages system? There's several bugs open, but CowboyNeal wrote that module so you probably have an idea of the "quality" of the code. He's a fucking monkey felcher and you know it.
Anyway, see you Saturday in town. We can talk about Kathleen and Jeff, and again, I'm sorry you had to go through her email to find out about them. I'm going to fucking kill that asshole.
Cheers
Timothy
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
Where is the single Make Everything Private Now and Forever button? I keep looking for it without success.
Or do only FB stockholders get that one--as long as they promise never to sell?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I'm amazed that anybody cares (and judging from the number of comments, nobody does). Not even an update to the platform to go with this story? How is this news, or even interesting information, for that matter?
If a user is too stupid to understand the difference between a private message and a message posted to a Facebook wall (or timeline, now), he doesn't need to be using Facebook. In fact, someone who doesn't understand that distinction probably isn't bright enough to be online in the first place. There are a lot of potential problems with Facebook, and I don't like some of the company's practices. But this is a case in which the company did nothing wrong and Facebook-haters leapt on it in an effort to find SOMETHING to blame the company for. This one isn't close. A user needs to know the difference between a private message and a wall post on a website -- or else get off of the site.
The fact that there are +/- 1 billion users would say that maybe, as a web designer, you are wrong in your assessment about what makes for a good UI.
Apparently, as many concluded early on, the "leaked" messages were just old Wall-to-Wall posts, that users had mistakenly believed were private.
facebook user. n, /fsbook yoozr/
/fsbook SHe()rhldr/
/märk Sookrbrgh/
A person (living, deceased, real, fake or other) who mistakenly believes they have any measure of control over information they provide to facebook.
facebook shareholder. n,
A person (wealthy, poor, playing with someone else's money, possibly underwater or other) who understands the definition of a facebook user, believes such creatures will continue to flourish, and believes shareholders have any measure of control over the company.
Mark Zuckerberg. n,
A person (genius, swindler, dumbass kid in a hoodie or other) who understands both of the above definitions and whose fortunes depend upon his ability to keep moving terms, conditions and settings around while presenting the illusion of continuity by wearing the same shirt every single day.
Claims that old private telephone calls have been leaking onto people's Timelines have been dismissed by AT&T. Apparently, as many concluded early on, the "leaked" messages were just old calls recorded in room 614A - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A, that users had mistakenly believed were private. Given the lack of user understanding, now is a good time for AT&T to revamp its privacy help pages. Let's hope users pay attention, and AT&T genuinely resists exploiting their naivety.
Somebody should show him how to use a computer. I think if he learned how to do that he might have a fighting chance!
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun