Facebook has a checkered past with respect to the privacy of its users. Facebook privacy settings are always opt-out and this angers a lot of people. Interestingly, the ability of information to go viral on Facebook is how a lot of people first learn about Facebook privacy changes. This may be about to change. Over the weekend, Senator Charles Schumer from New York contacted the Federal Trade Commission to log a formal complaint about the lack of privacy regulations for social networking websites. This article quotes Schumer as saying "These changes can adversely affect users and, currently, there is little guidance on what social networking sites can and cannot do and how disclosure is provided."
What prompted Schumer to take action now was a recent privacy change on Facebook called Instant Personalization. Now companies that are approved in advance by Facebook can personalize your experience on their websites based on your public Facebook data. The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp, and Facebook Docs. What this means is even if you have never visited Pandora or Yelp before, they know information about you and can target content to you if you ever do visit their website.
Given our class discussion on the inevitability of increased government regulations around privacy, I found it interesting that some government employees are already taking action to increase the rights of consumers with regard to protecting their own privacy.
P.S. If you would like instructions on how to opt out of Instant Personalization, you can find them here.
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