Facebook & Privacy
On May 5th, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and 14 other privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint against Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which states:
Facebook now discloses personal information to the public that Facebook users previously restricted. Facebook now discloses personal information to third parties that Facebook users previously did not make available. These changes violate user expectations, diminish user privacy, and contradict Facebook's own representations.
The cause for concern was Facebook's new Instant Personalization feature, users inability to make certain information private, and Facebook sharing user preferences with other social network sites.
In mid-April, Facebook began to require its users to designate personal information as publicly linkable "Links," "Pages," or "Connections," or to no longer make such information available. The problem was, many Facebook users had previously restricted access to their profile data.
If you're a Facebook user and haven't updated your privacy settings as a result of the recent changes, ISG recommends that you do so. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has step-by-step instructions and a video on How to Opt Out of Facebook's Instant Personalization to help you through the process.
Related Resources:
- PCWorld: Facebook Privacy Complaint: A Complete Breakdown
- EFF: Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy (A Timeline)
- Facebook: A Guide to Privacy on Facebook
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