[LINK] Facebook and privacy

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Senators tell Facebook: tighten privacy policy  http://www.reuters.com


(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers told Facebook on Tuesday they were concerned 
about changes in its privacy policy that would allow personal information 
to be viewed by more than friends, and, options on other websites that 
would allow third parties to save information about Facebook users and 
friends.

In a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg dated 
April 27, Senators objected to changes that made a user's current city, 
hometown, likes, interests and friends publicly available, where they 
were previously only seen by friends.

They protested changes that would allow Facebook's third-party 
advertisers to store users' data for more than 24 hours, and a 
Facebook "like" button on websites such as CNN.com, Pandora and ESPN to 
share the information with Facebook friends.

"We are concerned ... that this feature will now allow certain third-
party partners to have access not only to a user's publicly available 
profile information, but also to the user's friend list and that publicly 
available information about those friends," the senators' wrote.

Facebook has about 400 million users.

The senators, Charles Schumer, Michael Bennet, Mark Begich and Al Franken 
said the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would likely examine the issue.

"In the meantime, we believe Facebook can take swift and productive steps 
to alleviate the concerns of its users," they wrote. 

"Providing opt-in mechanisms for information sharing instead of expecting 
users to go through long and complicated opt-out processes is a critical 
step."

Google, Facebook and other websites depend on access to information about 
users to earn advertising revenue. 

The FTC has been under pressure to curb the use of private information.

Facebook released a reply to the senators from Elliot Schrage, a Facebook 
vice president, also dated April 27, in which he wrote, "These new 
products and features are designed to enhance personalization and promote 
social activity across the Internet while continuing to give users 
unprecedented control over what information they share."

Schumer also wrote to the FTC, asking it to create guidelines on the use 
and distribution of private information by online social networking sites 
like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

"These sites provide a valuable service to users by keeping them 
connected with friends and family and reconnecting them with long-lost 
friends and colleagues," Schumer wrote. "But the growth of these sites 
over the last several years demands we provide guidelines on how private 
information submitted by users is shared and disseminated."

FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell said in a telephone call that the 
agency planned "to develop a framework that social networks and others 
will use to guide their data collection, use and sharing practices."

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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Cheers,
Stephen