According to news reports, Facebook called a company-wide meeting today to discuss its privacy polices. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Facebook’s meeting on privacy issues is a result of a growing number of Facebook users who have become alarmed alarmed by the company’s casual attitude towards protecting user information.
As a result, the ACLU is asking Facebook users to sign a petition to give users more control over their personal information. The ACLU’s petition to Facebook asks Facebook to give users control over all the information they share on Facebook, including “connections,” to protect user information by default, and to et users choose who can see any part of their information. In recent months, the social networking mega-site has taken away some privacy controls altogether from users, and has made other information public by default.
The ACLU is also petitioning Facebook to not share user information with any third party without a user’s “express opt-in consent.” Facebook recently opted users into a beta program that shared user information with third parties by default. Many users did not know that they were sharing their information with other websites, and it’s my guess that the majority of Facebook users that were automatically enrolled in this program still don’t know that their information is leaving the walls of Facebook.
I am going to sign the petition myself. I am all for Facebook being allowed to monetize itself, but not at the cost of tricking the average user into handing over their personal information. As the ACLU stated in the email it sent out to users today, “the less control you have over your own personal information, the more likely that information could end up in the wrong hands—including the government’s.”
The ACLU and Google are not the only organizations freaking out (and rightly so) about Facebook’s recent disrespect for the privacy of its users. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 14 other consumer groups filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Facebook. This week, a European Union group slammed Facebook publicly.
Please join me in signing the petition.
I do not want Facebook to go away. It has enriched my relationships with friends around the world and even acted as a catalyst for forming some new friendships. And until recently, my entire family stayed in touch on Facebook. We were able to interact with each other multiple times a day despite being flung across every time zone in the US. Previous to Facebook, that was impossible.
At Facebook’s F8 Conference held April 21, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said his company was “building a web where the default is social,” explaining the new information-sharing features rolled out that day, including Open Graph. Not long after, Google engineers starting closing or deactivating their Facebook accounts in drove. I wonder if Zuckerberg is not concerned for his own privacy, having opened up almost all of his Facebook profile for the entire world to see. While I commend him for walking his talk – subjecting his personal information to the same risks that many unaware Facebook users are now facing – I really want to know if Zuckerberg, who turns 26 tomorrow, has ever read George Orwell’s book 1984. Having come of age in the era of over sharing, many of my 20-something friends don’t understand what all the fuss about. After all, they don’t have anything to hide. Their lives are open books. Like Orwell’s characters in 1984 who had become enslaved to the government, “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
For those of us who are awake, let’s show Facebook some tough love. Let’s tell Facebook we care about it, and therefore am concerned that it is completely out of control. Stop manipulating innocent user’s personal information, Facebook, and we will keep sharing our lives (with those we choose to) on your site. Refuse to respect our personal boundaries, however, and we are cutting you off.
