In this new world of the internet people don't seem to realize the full extent of lack of privacy. Some mark it up as a, "oh that's okay... it works for me!" "it's free!" "I want more advertisers understanding my personal tendencies!" "It's okay for companies to gather my information - I just don't want the government!" "Boy this is free and it's going to help me."
When will people realize that nothing is "free." Nothing in life free - there are consequences for every step you make - every move you make.
Some seem to get that more of their information will be sold to the highest bidder only to have them catagorized and profiled.
Historically the US government's willingness to go against business even if it puts the American people in danger is noteworthy. Need examples? Try the hijacking / terrorism used for the massive bailout.
Glad that someone has the balls to step up. We'll see just how important the US government believes privacy and autonomy is to the American people. I will guess that with the amount of money many of the big businesses are throwing on the table no one will step up to, "cut their precious revenue streams and opportunities to build new and exciting revenue potential."
SHAME!
Schumer calls on FTC to tackle social-net privacy
Summary
New York Senator Charles Schumer has come out swinging against new announcements by Facebook that modify how much member data is shared with third-party companies.
Topics
New York Senator Charles Schumer has come out swinging against new announcements by Facebook that modify how much member data is shared with third-party companies, suggesting that the Federal Trade Commission needs to promptly address the issue of social-network privacy.
A press release from Schumer's office announced that he has written to the FTC to ask that the agency "examine the privacy disclosures of social-networking sites to ensure they are not misleading or fail to fully disclose the extent to which they share information...(and) provide guidelines for use of private information and prohibit access without user permission."
This was prompted by the new products and services unveiled by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the social network's annual developer conference, which took place in San Francisco last week. The big showcase at F8 was the "Open Graph," which aims to forge firmer channels of communication between multiple social-networking sites. In conjunction, Facebook rolled out something called "Instant Personalization," which lets users easily share the bulk of their personal profile information with third-party companies.
According to Schumer, frequent changes to social-networking privacy policies can be extremely confusing for users, and that the FTC currently does not regulate this at all.
For more on this story, read Senator calls on FTC to tackle social-net privacy on CNET News.
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jessiethe3rd27th Apr 2010
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