Putting it mildly, Facebook has done a terrible job dealing with the myriad of privacy issues inherent with its social networking platform (see, for example, News Feed, Beacon, and indirectly, the TOS debacle). I have frequently called on Facebook to…
Read More Facebook Hires ACLU Privacy Lawyer, Might Actually Address Privacy
Amateur facial recognition technology is coming to Facebook. Face.com is launching a facial recognition application called Photo Finder to allow Facebook users to search their photos -- and photos of their friends -- to learn, recognize, and tag familiar faces.…
Read More Photo Finder: Automated Facial Recognition on Facebook
Again, the media suggests the "kids these days just don't care about privacy" and that, thanks to online social networking, privacy as a value has disappeared. This time, it's Randall Stross at the NY Times, in a column "When Everyone’s…
Sometime last year, I discovered a Facebook application named "Privacy" that provided insight into the personal information any application can access when a user adds one to their Facebook profile. The application prodded users to be concerned about how much…
Read More What Happened to the Facebook Application “Privacy”?
After reverting to its old terms of service in the face of increasing criticism, Facebook has followed up on its promise to give users "a lot of input in crafting" the next version of the social networking giant's TOS. Today,…
Fred Stutzman has an excellent post on the recent Facebook terms of service kerfuffle, including his prescription for what Facebook must do to properly address user rights: First, Facebook should place a reasonable lifespan (eighteen to twenty-four months) on information…
Read More Stutzman’s Suggestions for Facebook to Properly Address User Rights
Amid increasing criticism regarding modifications to its terms of service, Facebook has withdrawn the changes it implemented on February 4, 2009. Mark Zuckerberg posted a message explaining this move, and FB also released a set of "Facebook Bill of Rights…
Now that the NY Times has picked up the story about Facebook changing their terms of service, effecitvely removing mention that the license users grant Facebook to use their content expires if users remove said content, Facebook has issued a…
Read More On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information (Except When Facebook Does)
The terms of service (TOS) for most websites featuring user-generated content share a common language regarding the license granted to those sites when a user uploads content. YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr, for example, all state (with some wordsmithing) that when…
Read More Facebook’s New Content License Extends Beyond Closure of Account
Here's an interesting story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noting that some Marquette University sororities are requiring their pledges keep off of Facebook until the rush is over. There seems to be two possible reasons for the Facebook blackout. One,…
Read More University Sororities Banning Facebook during Rush
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