Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
FTC Announces Settlement With Facebook–Imposes New Express Consent Requirements for Certain Sharing of Information | The Lares Institute
The FTC announced today that it had settled a matter with Facebook related to its privacy practices. Among the allegations made by the FTC in the complaint were: In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn’t warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance.
I deleted my Facebook account
I deleted my Facebook account Broadly speaking, our generation seems confused as to how the world went to shit while we sat around using the computational power of a sun to friend and pirate-poke each other into oblivion. Facebook is calling our bluff. They are dismantling the services that made their site valuable and selling us out in ways that make our lives worse. And they know that we can’t or won’t leave. The final straw for me was when Facebook warmed me that if I didn’t link my interests (music, books, etc.) to the official pages for those interests, I could no longer claim to have those interests… in other words, if I wasn’t willing to sell something, I wasn’t allowed to like it.
If you're sure you want to leave Facebook, you can now permanently delete your Facebook account. Facebook makes it pretty easy to deactivate your account which will temporarily hide your information. However, if you want to permanently remove your information, the "permanent delete" option is much harder to find. This article will cover two easy ways to erase your Facebook account so you can quit Facebook forever.
How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account - wikiHow
Glitch Brings New Worries About Facebook’s Privacy - NYTimes.com
On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations. Not long before, Facebook had introduced changes that essentially forced users to choose between making information about their interests available to anyone or removing it altogether. Although Facebook quickly moved to close the security hole on Wednesday, the breach heightened a feeling among many users that it was becoming hard to trust the service to protect their personal information. “Facebook has become more scary than fun,” said Jeffrey P. Ament, 35, a government contractor who lives in Rockville, Md. Mr.Facebook's Timeline will be boon for hackers - Computerworld
Computerworld - Facebook's new Timeline will make it even easier for criminals and others to mine the social network for personal information they can use to launch malicious attacks and steal passwords, a researcher said today. Timeline, which Facebook unveiled yesterday at a developer conference and plans to roll out to users in a few weeks, summarizes important past events in a one-page display. "Timeline makes it a heck of a lot easier [for attackers] to collect information on people," said Chet Wisniewski, a Sophos security researcher. "It's not that the data isn't already there on Facebook, but it's currently not in an easy-to-use format."
In just six years Facebook has crossed the threshold of 500 million users. In the past nine months it has doubled in size and is now the number one most visited Web site in the world, surpassing Google. Facebook’s motto is “Making the world open and connected,” where a lone voice can have a powerful impact, as evidenced this year by one activist’s post on Facebook that sparked a demonstration of 12 million people against the Revolutionary Forces of Columbia (FARC), which had been terrorizing Colombian citizens for years. But along with its policy of openness and potential for social change, Facebook has repeatedly come under fire for its lax policies toward the privacy of its members. Behind the Wall Facebook members have a “wall” where they can post pictures and information (essentially their own web page), chat with each other, and read the latest on everyone in “The Feed.”
How Facebook Betrayed Users and Undermined Online Privacy | Media | AlterNet
Another data protection authority says Facebook's facial recognition feature violates European data protection law | Privacy International
On the 2nd of August 2011 the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has called on Facebook to delete the feature on the social networking site that automatically recognizes facial features and "tags" users when others upload photos of them. According to the local German data protection authority the feature is a violation of local and European data protection laws, and Facebook should adapt the feature to European data protection law or suspend the use of the facial recognition technology. The Commissioner calls the facial recognition technology a "serious interference with the informational self-determination of a person. Even a company that operates globally must respect that." Facebook faces severe fines if they do not comply with the order to shutdown their auto-tagging system in Germany.
Facebook
Soziale Netzwerke: Facebook löscht nicht zuverlässig | Digital | ZEIT ONLINE
Ein Wiener Student will sehen, welche Daten er in drei Jahren bei Facebook hinterlassen hat. Das Ergebnis: 1.200 DIN-A4-Seiten und einige unangenehme Überraschungen. Seit drei Jahren ist Max Schrems Mitglied bei Facebook.
