Data cops: Facebook privacy plans must be 'modified' Two privacy campaign groups have urged Facebook to rethink plans to change its terms of service, designed to help the social network squeeze more money out of ads. Meanwhile data regulators have stated that the plans will have to change so as to comply with privacy rules. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and …
Do you genuinely believe that every user of facebook is well aware of the implications of being a facebook user? This sort of exercise is there to protect the people who don't. You don't have to like it, or facebook, but I for one am in favour of measures which limit facebook's ability to exploit the ignorant and foolish.
absolutely correct... if their ads start leaking thru my blocks, they will be abandoned like anything else that's past its prime... money isn't the answer to everything and stockholders will still play even without FB... i'm surprised that they still have the stockholders they do based on the way the stock has dropped into the crapper ;)
Cue pillocks and their "I don't use it!" statements, bully for you. I use it and its useful for staying in touch with friends and family, but like any tool it needs careful configuration and careful use.
If you're stupid enough to buy a chainsaw and not get googles and pads, and read the manual then you're asking for trouble!
The "if you don't like it, don't use it" argument is becoming as pervasive as the "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" one, and it's just as dumb. I get that you don't use it, and don't you feel smug and superior? But like it or not, this is a service (or whatever you want to call it) that MILLIONS of people in the UK use. It isn't unreasonable to expect FB to protect the rights of the people who use it. And it isn't unreasonable to expect that when you sign up for ANY new service you will be afforded certain basic privacy rights as default without having to spend half a day trawling through sub-sub-sub-settings to ensure they're enabled.
ps. I don't use FB
In response to the new Facebook guidelines* I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention).
For commercial use of the above, my written consent is needed at all times!
(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws.) By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook's direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).
*Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates.
As I, not so long ago, posted to Facebook...
"If you've fallen for the recent "nobody can't use anything I post because I've included this bit of text" legalese statement:
Short version:
The impressive looking legalese statement has NO legal basis and is COMPLETELY and UTTERLY meaningless AND worthless!
Long version:
The statement references UCC 1-103 and 1-308 as some kind of legal backing for itself when UCC 1-103 and 1-308 are in fact actually part of the United States "Uniform Commercial Code". This governs sales and commercial transactions within the US and, besides having absolutely no relevancy outside of the US, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with laws surrounding IP (Intellectual Property), Copyright or Personal Data which the above statement purports to protect. Furthermore UCC 1-103 and 1-308 are part of Article 1 of the UCC which contains NO law itself, only definitions and rules of interpretation for the actual laws in Articles 2 through 9 of the UCC.
The whole of the UUC can be found on the (US) Cornell University Law School website: http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/
The ONLY protection afforded to content you create and subsequently post to Facebook, such as photos, is that of IP/Copyright law. Here in the UK almost anything you create, including but not limited to songs, paintings, poems, books, and even letters and status updates etc becomes, at the point of creation, your intellectual property and as such is protected by copyright law for the entirety of your life plus 70 years. Without delving too far into the law this is, in reality, really only of any use if any of your IP is being used by another for their commercial gain and/or you can prove you have suffered a lose due to its use. It is also important to remember that use of your IP can be licenced/transfered...
Facebook themselves can use ANYTHING you post HOWEVER they want because you have, just by USING Facebook, granted them a "non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook." Basically, this means that Facebook can do WHATEVER they want with your photos, status updates, comments etc, including passing it on to other companies/organisations, because you've ALREADY given them permission to do so.
Any information YOU publicly post to Facebook, which can subsequently being used by other organisations, authorities, agencies or individuals, has the SAME protection afforded to that of a conversation held, and overheard, in the street: NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Facebook iis the online equivalent of a pub, park or street and there are absolutely NO protections in law to prevent others (either known or unknown to you) acting upon or using information that YOU have publicly revealed. NONE WHATSOEVER! For that to happen there would have to be a none-disclosure agreement between you, Facebook and ALL your friends. Given the nature of Facebook that would be completely unworkable/unenforceable and would practically defeat the whole purpose of Facebook being a SOCIAL network.
The ONLY other kind of information that has any kind of protection is that which you provided to Facebook, like any other business, for them to provision you with their services, such as name, address, email address, phone number, etc. Although that is protected by the Data Protection Act it could be argued, by Facebook, that it only applies to people who choose not to ALSO publicly expose this information on their profiles, so thats a bit of a grey area.
Here endeth the lesson! :D"
I wish I could find the reference again. M.Zuckerberg had stated in the past very clearly and in no uncertain terms that FB exists to collect and sell personal information. FB users are there to be packaged up and sold to advertisers and marketing companies. I manage to stay in touch with my family and friends (the real ones, not the virtual ones) just fine without FB. If they had a model where they wouldn't be selling my personal information by charging a reasonable monthly fee, I might be interested.
The scariest aspect of FB is how comprehensive a package of data they can provide about their users. Big Brother might wind up being their largest customer as just buying information on people via commercial means doesn't require warrants like telephone tapping and intercepting mail do (I know, they do that stuff too without getting permission). I would imagine that the cost would be quite low compared to the old fashion way of gathering it using government spooks. The cost really isn't an issue since the budgets involved are only ever made public in major scandals.
Be afraid.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
