Senators see privacy problem in Facebook

Miscellaneous Current Events
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Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information.

The call for simpler privacy controls came in a letter that the senators plan to send Tuesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Associated Press obtained a draft of the letter signed by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo; Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; and Sen. Al Franken, D.-Minn.

It marks the second time in the past three days that Schumer has expressed his misgivings about a series of changes that Facebook announced last week. The new features are designed to unlock more of the data that the online hangout has accumulated about people during its six-year history…

http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/27/senators-see-privacy-problem-in-facebook-expansion/

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It’s not that Facebook may have some privacy issues that concerns them - it’s that the surrender of privacy is voluntary on the part of the individual. Invasion of privacy is just fine, so long as they do it themselves through things like the “Patriot” Act. If facebook changed its name to Patriotbook and handed the system over to Congress, all would be fine.

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Could you argue that Facebook has breached the terms of its contract to users relating to privacy over time?

The possibility that all your information is basically a permanent record used for data mining (even if you ‘permanently delete’ your account) is a disturbing one.

I have similar fears over sites like Pipl, even though they essentially make use of loopholes to post your shit.