Facebook and the expectation of privacy
Another privacy spat has erupted in relation to Facebook, the social networking site. It all began when the site began actively advertising everything you did you all of your friends: every time a photo was updated or a relationship status changed, everyone could see it by default, rather than having to go looking. After that, it emerged that Facebook was selling information to third parties. Now, it seems that the applications people can install are getting access to more of their information than is required for them to operate, allowing the writers of such applications to collect and sell information such as the stated hometown and sexual orientation of anyone using them.
Normally, I am in favour of mechanisms to protect privacy and sympathetic to the fact that technology makes that harder to achieve. Facebook, I think, is different. As with a personal site, everything being posted is being intentionally put into the public domain. Those who think they have privacy on Facebook are being deluded and those who act as though information posted there is private are being foolish. The company should be more open about both facts, but I think they are within their rights to sell the information they are collecting.
The best advice for Facebook users is to keep the information posted trivial, and maintain the awareness that whatever finds its way online is likely to remain in someone’s records forever.
[Update: 12 February 2008] Canada’s Privacy Comissioner has a blog. It might be interesting reading for people concerned with such matters.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I agree that people don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to what they put on Facebook, but the company should warn them better. Something like this should be added to the registration process:
Warning: all information provided to Facebook (including photos) is willfully released into the public domain, for unlimited use by all individuals with no expectation of privacy. Information available on Facebook may be accessed by parents, teachers and administrators (including for disciplinary purposes), police, and present and future employers. Users are advised to keep this under consideration.
Of course, they may end up with a few fewer subscribers, as well as less dramatic party photos being uploaded.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free
Some members discover it’s tough to erase all their information from the site.
Are you worried about your information staying on the Internet forever?
February 11th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
The technological hurdles set by Facebook have a business rationale: they allow ex-Facebookers who choose to return the ability to resurrect their accounts effortlessly. According to an e-mail message from Amy Sezak, a spokeswoman for Facebook, “Deactivated accounts mean that a user can reactivate at any time and their information will be available again just as they left it.”
But it also means that disenchanted users cannot disappear from the site without leaving footprints. Facebook’s terms of use state that “you may remove your user content from the site at any time,” but also that “you acknowledge that the company may retain archived copies of your user content.”
Its privacy policy says that after someone deactivates an account, “removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time.”
Facebook’s Web site does not inform departing users that they must delete information from their account in order to close it fully — meaning that they may unwittingly leave anything from e-mail addresses to credit card numbers sitting on Facebook servers.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Steven Mansour, 28, a Canadian online community developer, spent two weeks in July trying to fully delete his account from Facebook. He later wrote a blog entry — including e-mail messages, diagrams and many exclamations of frustration — in a post entitled “2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account” (www.stevenmansour.com).
February 12th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Social Networking and Privacy
* Never expect absolute privacy. Know what you’re getting into by reading the privacy statement and policies. Many sites allow all registered users to view all the information you post on your site with no exceptions.
* Before you join a site and post your profile, find out if you can join a closed network, where only those with an email address from your school can register, for example. Find out if the site allows others to see your profile without your consent.
* Choose the highest and most restrictive security setting available and do not give out information like your birthday, full name, phone number, Social Insurance Number or address.
* Take a second to think about what you’re posting about yourself and your friends. Is it something you would post if your professor, boss, kid sister or arch rival was standing right behind you? Even though we tend to think about our personal sites as private, in reality, many can be seen by just about anyone. Is there information about you that is embarrassing or that fraudsters could use? Remember that what you post could be online forever.
* Keep in mind that even sites with extensive privacy options may be required to make your personal information available to certain authorized persons, including law enforcement agencies. Actually, you might want to remember to call your parents regularly before they resort to checking your Facebook page for updates.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
[...] have mentioned Facebook and the expectation of privacy before. Now, the blog of the Canadian privacy commissioner is highlighting one of the risks. [...]