FB Forgets the Meaning of Privacy

Unbeknownst to me, all of those annoying status updates that screamed “go to your account! Change your privacy setting! FB is giving your information out to third party companies!” were, umm, true? Every time someone posted those messages, I thought, “My God, how gullible of them. Facebook would never do something like that- and even if they wanted to, I’m sure it’s against the law or something.”

Well…now it is. Sort of.

Facebook just settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on charges that it overrode users privacy settings without consent and shared their private information with advertisers. This makes me angry and relieved at the same time. On one hand, I am so disgusted with Facebook’s complete violation of its users trust just to make an extra buck for the already multi billion dollar business they’re running (that number is a complete guess and may very well be a gross exaggeration...or complete understatement- I have no idea). On the other hand, I am so relieved that there was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid the same fate as all of you Facebook users that actually changed your settings. I know, I know- how ridiculous. But here’s the thing- I don’t want to have to constantly work at keeping my information private. It’s about time the FTC enforced privacy regulations. Hopefully they’ll follow suit with our European counterparts that have been much more aggressive in regulating social networking sites. Did you know that when you delete your Facebook account, your photos are still up there? That’s crazy. It’s like you can't leave. Ever. We’re in Facebook prison, people.

The charge carried no financial penalties (why would it- its only the public’s private information) but FB is subject to a $16,000 fine per violation per day if it fails to comply. Yeah right, their $16,000 per minute lawyers would never let that happen.

So, what does this mean? If Facebook continues to try and be sneaky we could be ‘out there’ forever? Will I be targeted for every single yoga class in the Northeast because I clicked on the ad that one time? According to this article, FB made personal information available to advertisers between September 2008 and May 2010. Great. Who knows what I was doing then? I was probably going through my awkward punk rock phase which I will now be reminded of every day for the rest of my life. Thank you Facebook.

Sure Mark Zuckerberg apologized, like he usually does right before he implements new variations of executive positions that sound ridiculously pretentious—this time he’s calling them Chief Privacy officers.

OK, here’s my plea.

Dear Mr. Chief Privacy Officers,

We are asking you, begging you to please not distribute our very personal information to any third party. Please don’t make us regret joining FB (ok that would never happen but you get the point) and help us protect ourselves, our dignity.

Don’t let us down, Mr. Chief Privacy Officers. We know, based on your title alone, that you can handle this job. We believe in you.

Thank you for your time and we sincerely appreciate the help.

Love,

the 800 million active Facebook users around the world