EchoD

I have stated before that Facebook took a turn for the worst. Anybody who knows the least bit about me should realize I find the Applications idiotic. I have, in the past, also mentioned that current generations have little regard for their privacy. Perhaps it’s ignorance, perhaps indifference. Honestly, it’s annoying.

With the advent of applications, what little privacy Facebook lent its users has flown out the window. Each one requires the user to authorize the application to access certain information in their profile. Just what information is accessed is unknown. If it is stated somewhere, it is where only a law student would be able to find it. Knowing law students, I’m well aware they haven’t bothered to look. In fact, the only people who would bother looking for, and reading, a privacy policy are a select few obsessive compulsives and the paranoid schizophrenic.

The following article summaries are courtesy of Slashdot.org [/.].

The Implications of Facebook on Society

“The site Switched.com is taking a look at the slow death of privacy at the hands of social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace with a link to a report on the creepy practice of Facebook employees monitoring what pages you look at and a thought-provoking video interview with social media expert Clay Shirky — who says that social networks are profoundly changing our ability to keep our private lives private. ‘Eventually, Shirky theorizes, society will have to create a space that’s implicitly private even though it’s technically public, not unlike a personal conversation held on a public street. Otherwise, our ability to keep our lives private will be forever destroyed. Of course, that might already be the case.’”

The New Facebook Ads – Another Privacy Debacle?

“Facebook recently announced a new advertising scheme called ‘Social Ads.’ Instead of using celebrities to hawk products, it will use pictures of Facebook users. Facebook might be entering into another privacy debacle. The site assumes that if people rate products highly or write good things about a product then they consent to being used in an advertisement for it. Facebook doesn’t understand that privacy amounts to much more than keeping secrets — it involves controlling accessibility to personal data. ‘The use of a person’s name or image in an advertisement without that person’s consent might constitute a violation of the appropriation of name or likeness tort. According to the Restatement (Second) of Torts 652C: “One who appropriates to his own use or benefit the name or likeness of another is subject to liability to the other for invasion of his privacy.”"

Facebook Users Complain of New Ad Based Tracking

Tech.Luver noted a story about facebook users complaining over ads where their shopping habits are shared with their friends as if they are endorsing products. The neatest part is that you can opt out- if you click a box that disappears after 20 seconds… wait to long, and they assume you are totally fine with it.

As always, this is just something to take into consideration. I really don’t expect it to change anything, but… knowledge is power.