Day: June 2, 2010

In response to recent Facebook privacy fiascoes -- the privacy upgrade downgrade and inevitable backtracking, Zuckerberg's (and other exec's) various ill-informed remarks, etc, etc -- I've co-authored an op-ed with Chris Hoofnagle, the director of information privacy programs at the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law & Technology, where we criticize Facebook's "perfection of privacy public relations." The piece appears in The Huffington Post, and is titled "How to Win Friends and Manipulate People". Here's an excerpt: These events represent the perfection of privacy public relations. Guided by earlier battles fought by tobacco and drug companies, information-intensive firms have learned how to use rhetoric to distract the public while successfully implementing new programs. They are the Machiavellis of privacy.

GigaOm highlights an interview with Nancy Baym, associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas and author of Personal Connections in the Digital Age, on the limitations in Facebook's approach to privacy. The interview covers various important issues,…

Read More Baym: Facebook’s Views on Privacy are “Fundamentally Naive and Utopian”