Recent controversial changes to Facebook’s Privacy Policy has been met with outrage by users.
The online world has never been a secure place for private or sensitive information and with this notion only beginning to sink in, many internet users are frustrated about having little control over what their data is used for. So you can imagine the outrage when Facebook users received an official email from Facebook saying that they have revised their data use policy and their statement of rights and responsibility. This involves the dramatic removal of a system which allows the users to give feedback on Facebook’s privacy policies.
The social networking site has nearly 1 billion users worldwide and is renowned for being terribly addictive. When Facebook first became popular, we never thought that our status updates or hundreds of personal pictures would come back to haunt us because “surely only our friends can see it.” Then soon we realised that having an active Facebook account AND keeping your private life private was not an option.
The email sent by Facebook says that it is proposing to change its governance process by removing the voting component in favour of a different system. This change reverses the 2009 policy which allowed users to vote on the site’s privacy rules. Also, there will be a series of updates on managing Facebook messages, changes to how Facebook refer to different products and reminders of what’s visible to other people on the site. Following this email, Facebook users and privacy groups have voiced their disapproval about the continuous changes to the data security on the social network.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy wrote a letter to Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook voicing concerns about the changes. The letter contained arguments for the rights of users and admonished the decisions of Zuckerburg:
“We ask that Facebook be similarly responsive to the rights of Facebook users to control their personal information and to participate in the governance of Facebook. We ask that you withdraw the proposed changes to the Data Use Policy and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.”
Facebook shutting down its privacy rules voting system isn’t all that its users are concerned with. The social network also announced that it will share user data with Instagram and emails between Facebook members will have looser restrictions. Another security failure recently resulted in many Facebook users found that they have been accidentally brought back into groups that they left years before, allowing them to see sensitive and private information. Since 2005 Facebook has been continually “fixing” its privacy policies, with the changes leaning towards users to share more about themselves with more people.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “the age of privacy is over”, and since he first co-founded the social networking site, what is normal for privacy has changed greatly.
So to all people who have been with Facebook for a while, double check what you don’t want to be seen by the entire internet and delete it. To people who have not taken the leap into the social network, seriously consider if you need to and if you do, remember with all free services, you can’t trustthe owners with your personal data.
** UPDATE** 05/12/12
Facebook has emailed users to officially confirm that “the period for submitting comments” about the updates to their Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.
Also voting on Facebook’s site governance will end on December 10, 2012 at 12 PM (PST) / December 10, 2012 at 8 PM (GMT).
