Facebook is a fun tool but be careful what you post
The GazetteJuly 18, 2009
Facebook users should beware: those who can get at your personal information might include some who are not among your designated friends.
That was the public warning from a new report by Canada's privacy commissioner, diligently prepared over a 14-month investigation. The study reproached the popular "social media" service for several infringements of federal privacy law.
The main concerns were the Facebook firm's practice of sharing users' personal information with third parties, notably developers of games and puzzles that are flogged to Facebook members, and the retention of information about people who have died or abandoned the service. Facebook was ordered to amend these practices within a month, or face court action.
Like everyone involved with the Internet, social media are making it up as they go along. Since it started, Facebook has been plagued by allegations of careless or bluntly commercial dissemination of personal information and breaches of privacy. This is believed however to be the first time any government agency has threatened formal action. There's a lesson in this for Facebook's operators and Facebook users alike.
Facebook was rightly fingered for unwarranted information-sharing and for providing incomplete and confusing information about its privacy policies. But far too many of the 12 million Facebook members in this country and the 250 million worldwide are blithely unaware of how information they imagine is restricted to their online friends can leak out into the fullness of cyberspace if they fail to take precautions.
A classic recent example of online naivete involved the wife of Sir John Sawers, the new head of Britain's spy service. She committed a major security breach by posting some details of family life on her Facebook page without activating privacy controls.
The privacy commission's criticisms will not, and should not, put people off Facebook altogether. It is a wonderful tool and toy, as its rampant popularity attests. But it is evolving, at a time when old notions of privacy are being redefined by the unprecedented amount of personal information in circulation on the Internet.
It has been suggested that in the Internet age there is no such thing as privacy any more, and the best we can do is get used to it.
But it doesn't have to come to that. There should be privacy rules, even though no rule is foolproof. The surest of rules for people with privacy concerns is simple: Don't put anything online that you don't want the world to know.
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