Facebook's privacy policy is written in plain English, but there are still a few vague phrases kicking around. So, what stuff does Facebook hold on you?
Apart from the usual stuff all websites know about you when you visit (like the numerical identifier, called the IP address, that traces you back to your internet provider) Facebook says it holds personal information you "knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Website use information collected by us as you interact with our Website". This essentially means everything you say and do on Facebook is collected, because everything you do on there is a knowing disclosure - right?
It also says "you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, schools attended and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us". Wow. I certainly haven't told it all of this stuff. I think I registered before you had to specify your gender, so it doesn't know this, either. If people make all of this stuff available for even close friends to view (and say a friend's account gets hacked), it's perfect fodder for an identity thief.
You also need to provide Facebook with your date of birth, because you need to say you're over 13 to use the service. I always provide my date of birth to identify myself when I call a bank.
Note: All this doesn't even apply to the third-party applications that you might have installed. As soon as you give them permission to install themselves on to your Facebook profile, they have access to your data, too. And in an earlier post we discussed Beacon, the feature that broadcast certain actions on third-party websites to your friends that you may have preferred to keep private.
Third parties that you haven't even given permission to access your profile can access aggregated information about you. It's not personally identifiable, but your actions are contributing to Facebook's bottom line. "We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or film and personalising advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you with Facebook. We believe this benefits you."
We believe this benefits Facebook, too, n'est-ce pas?
Oh, and most creepy of all, "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile."
Huh? This is probably something Facebook will focus on more in the future, as information becomes more easily tied to individuals. Does this mean Facebook will be able to associate your profile with, say, a mention of you in a local newspaper? When you list your blog on your profile, will it scan the blog and tie it up with your likes/dislikes? And as Microsoft has a small stake in Facebook, and you list your Hotmail address to sign up - where will that end? Facebook says: "Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your Profile (e.g. removing photo tag links)."
What I don't like about Facebook is it doesn't make it easy to delete information about myself. If I need to delete things individually from my Wall, for instance - I can't do multiple deletes. Making it possible is one thing, but it's also quite difficult to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment