Seeing as it's Election Day here in the United States, I feel it is my duty to urge our readers to get out and vote! Well, you don't have to "get out" -- you can just sit right there, because what we're voting on is Facebook's privacy policy.
And actually, we haven't quite hit the voting stages yet... but bear with me.
Last week, in response to earlier complaints from the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (Canada, psh... whiny bunch), Facebook made some changes to its privacy policy. For example, Facebook now makes clear the difference between the "deactivated" and "deleted" accounts, saying that a "deactivated account" means it is saved by Facebook in case you decide to reactivate it. A "deleted account," however, is permanent and cannot be reactivated.
Also important, and an issue contested by the Canadians, Facebook states that "even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users. However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on Facebook."
Further, says Facebook, "we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested," and "Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for up to 90 days, but will not be available to others."
There are more changes that you can read about here -- and what's better is Facebook is giving users until 12:00 noon Pacific Time on November 5 to comment on them. A blog on Facebook says, "After the comment period is over, we'll review your feedback and update you on our next steps."
Those next steps may include a couple of things we've seen before. According to its new democratic way of doing things, Facebook may re-craft the privacy policy based on user comments, and then let users vote for the old policy versus the new one -- just as it did when it revised its Terms of Service after a storm of hatred blew its way.
We've stated before that Facebook has kind of a bizarre way of running a business. Letting users help craft a privacy policy isn't the best business decision. Furthermore, only a very small portion of Facebook's users actually bother to participate. So far, there are 725 comments on the entire eight-part privacy policy, and we can assure you they aren't all quality comments. For a site that claims 300 million users, 725 is less than a proverbial drop in the proverbial bucket. And this isn't isolated apathy: During its first experiment with democracy, less than one percent of Facebook's population bothered to vote.
So what's the point? It's great that Facebook made policy changes based on the legitimate complaints from Canada's privacy commissioner, but why the need to loop in everyone's opinion when no one seems to care?
Well, whatever... In the spirit of continuing this transparency circus, be sure to get out there and weigh in on Facebook's changes to its privacy policy! It is, after all, your civic duty, as a sheep-flinging, Friending, Poking, farm-raising citizen of the United States of Social Networking.
Given the fine prints, changes in TOS & the type and quantity of content we are uploading on the internet, I see the need of a new business. These would be independent agencies that can go through all the fine prints, TOS, keep a record of complaints, track changes and based on all this, advise a user on 'privacy rating' & 'sensitivity index' of a web site. The revenue model will be primarily B2B: the logo & ranking of this service would be displayed by the web sites seeking to increase comfort level of existing & potential customers. With a tie up with Google/Yahoo/MSN they can even have a indicator right in the browser toolbar that intimates you of site's trustworthiness for your private data.
"For a site that claims 300 million users, 725 is less than a proverbial drop in the proverbial bucket"
Obviously of the 300 million users the bulk of which are not Canadians. But 725 is truly a paltry number. To me this says, "we (not me) surrender our privacy policy rights for the privilege of being a FaceBook member. The verbiage by FaceBook management will continue to maturate. The reason: to protect their ass not yours.
I didn't really have much to say about their privacy policy either. Looked like SOS to me. (That's Same Old [fill in the blank appropriately].) But I figured I'd try the comment link. With a little luck I'd get to scan the comments people had entered, and maybe that would help me notice something I missed.
No luck though. The link did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. So, I have till tomorrow sometime to comment, if I think it's worth the time trying to get a link to work, when I have much better things to do.
I really don't like facebook. Haven't, and still don't. I am only there because so many other people are and I need the extra connectivity to expand my consulting business. Sometimes the side just does not seem worth the trouble. I'd much rather spend time at Internet Evolution.
What is so special about Canada?( Canadians, no offense, I admire your country:))) Why Canada demands are so important? Are any country demands also important? If Mozambique, Livia, Kazakhstan ( I like, how much(c)?) demand to work on applications policy or change the design of Facebook, will it work?
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