"Thanks, Canada"

[tango]

Thanks, Canada: Facebook's 4 Big Privacy Fixes

Jared Newman

Aug 28, 2009 11:07 am

Pick on Canada all you want, but this week the country did good by muscling Facebook into making privacy changes. Our northern neighbors took the lead on scrutinizing Facebook's privacy policy and required alterations in accordance with Canada's privacy laws. Here are the four major privacy fixes we'll be seeing from Facebook, plus a couple privacy concerns that remain:

Third-Party Data Mining

Account Deactivation

Privacy for Non-Users

Privacy for Dead People

Concerns Remain

See details here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/171030/than...vacy_fixes.html

I use Facebook but don't trust it. I removed my photo. I never use 'applications' because they pull my 'friends' personal data too, for what purposes I don't know. Someone tagged a photo of me in some application and I won't go and look, but it bothers me.

I'm glad to see some action from the Privacy Commissioner, and look forward to more from our US friends.

Edited August 28, 2009 by tango

[bush_cheney2004]

I never understood the expectation of "privacy" by naive users who volunteer personal data on so called social networking sites. Maybe they forget what WWW stands for or why VD is called a social disease.

What's up with the "pick on Canada" lead?

Edited August 28, 2009 by bush_cheney2004

[Guest American Woman]

Jared Newman

Aug 28, 2009 11:07 am

Pick on Canada all you want, but this week the country did good by muscling Facebook into making privacy changes.

Since the "pick on Canada" lead has already been commented on, I'll just chuckle at the "muscling" take on Facebook's action:

Facebook will enhance its social-networking site's privacy features over the next 12 months as a result of a set of recommendations from the Canfacebook privacyadian government.

The changes come as a direct result of a review of Facebook's privacy policies and controls conducted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Facebook cooperated with the Canadian agency's study, which lasted more than a year.

"We're very pleased Facebook has been responsive to our recommendations," [ Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer facebook privacyStoddart] said... link

Sounds as if FacebBook caved in to some real "muscling" by Canada in making its decision ....

Edited August 28, 2009 by American Woman

[GostHacked]

Sounds good to me. And Facebook is willing to go along with the changes to improve privacy and security.

Both parties win here it seems.

[kimmy]

Sounds as if FacebBook caved in to some real "muscling" by Canada in making its decision ....

"muscle" is a poor choice of words. This is carrot-and-stick. Facebook opted for "carrot", and receives kudos for being responsive to concerns about customer privacy. Had they chosen "stick", refusing to address customer privacy concerns would have yielded bad publicity that would have reached beyond Canada's borders.

-k