I have mentioned Facebook and the expectation of privacy before. Now, the blog of the Canadian privacy commissioner is highlighting one of the risks. Because third party applications have access to both the data of those who install them and the friends of those who have them installed, they can be used to surreptitiously collect information from those in the latter group. While this widens the scope of what third party applications can do, it also seriously undermines the much-trumpeted new privacy features in the Facebook platform.
It just goes to reinforce what I said before: you should expect that anything you post on Facebook is (a) accessible to anyone who wants to see it and (b) likely to remain available online indefinitely. The same goes for most information that is published somewhere online, including on servers you operate yourself.
Facebook agrees child safety plan
In Technology
Facebook agrees a deal to protect children on the site from sexual predators and cyber bullies.
Facebook Agrees To User Safety Plan
By Soulskill on i’m-like-totally-18
Facebook has reached an agreement with the attorneys general of 49 states and the District of Columbia to develop and enhance controls to protect minors from inappropriate content. This follows a similar commitment from MySpace several months ago. The lone holdout in each case was Texas. News.com notes: “In the deal, the social network has agreed to develop age verification technology, send warning messages when an under-18 user may be giving personal information to an unknown adult, restrict the ability for people to change their ages on the site, and keep abreast of inappropriate content and harassment on the site. While the agreement is with U.S. state authorities, Kelly said that the tools deployed will apply to Facebook’s international users as well. More than half of the site’s 70 million users are outside the U.S.”
Facebook ‘violates privacy laws’
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
A Canadian privacy group has filed a complaint against the social networking site Facebook accusing it of violating privacy laws.
Dozens of Facebook apps breached
New York— The Associated Press
Published Monday, Oct. 18, 2010 6:34AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Oct. 18, 2010 8:10AM EDT
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 10 popular Facebook applications have been transmitting users’ personal identifying information to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.
The newspaper said Monday that the breach also includes users who set all their information to be completely private. And in some cases, it says, the apps provided access to friends’ names.