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Facebook hit by user-privacy lawsuit

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RE: Facebook hit by user-privacy lawsuit
mmeade@... 10th Sep 2009
Ok, I realize that I'm kind of old, but lets look back on a day before the internet. You got a credit card, and you go out and purchase a couple of high tech items from some store. Next thing you know, you are getting catalogs from companies that sell high tech equipment. If you bought some furnature, you get furnature catalogs. How did that happen? The credit card company sold your address to them because they know what kind of things you bought, it allowed for "targeted marketing." The CC company made money on your address. Did they give you a piece of the action? Nope, they just charged you interest.

Today, all kinds of places do this. There is a company called doubleclick that puts cookies on your computer to track what kind of things you are interested in and sell you information based on that. Look in your cookies. I'll bet you've got 10 or 15 doubleclick cookies on there right now.

Facebook is just trying to make an additional buck. You gave them your email address in good faith. They don't publish it in the open areas, but they gather them, group them, and sell them.

The problem is that technically they are allowed to do that. Usually there is something in the Terms and Conditions (that we all click agree on without reading) that says they can share your information with their "Partners" (someone who pays them for your information).

I don't know what it will take to get rid of this stuff. Most people don't even know that it's happening. Maybe things like this law suit will bring it more out in the open and cause a little uproar so that we can reduce it somewhat. But I don't think it will ever go away.
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