Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to give you a timeline of Facebook's “eroding privacy policy.” I think the message the EFF is trying to convey is one of caution….or maybe they just want to panic the crap out of you. :D

To help illustrate Facebook's shift away from privacy, we have highlighted some excerpts from Facebook's privacy policies over the years. Watch closely as your privacy disappears, one small change at a time!
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I know it's tough shit but if you don't like the policies then delete your account and call it a day, either that or delete the shit you don't want other people to see.
 
Emission said:
I know it's tough shit but if you don't like the policies then delete your account and call it a day, either that or delete the shit you don't want other people to see.
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How about the customer pressuring a service into meeting their demands? Is that a bad thing?
 
Emission said:
I know it's tough shit but if you don't like the policies then delete your account and call it a day, either that or delete the shit you don't want other people to see.
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Exactly, amazing how much people complain about a FREE SERVICE that no one forced you to sign up on or use, don't like it, leave and make your own site to share info on.
 
I just don't become a fan of ANYTHING, don't play any games and set my preferances to share with friends ONLY. Facebook still remains useful for the things I started using facebook for in the first place.
 
I'm not one of the douches who decry anything related to social networking, but I'm close to dumping Facebook. I just logged in and was faced with the "make your connections" pop up that would not let me click out of it.
 
nilepez said:
Not sure if deleting the account works, but deleting content does not work
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Well, that's a given for anything that's posted on the internet, unfortunately. My point was that there's not much you can do about it other than delete pretty much everything, account included, so that at least people can't search for these things via the regular channels.

Anyone wanna get together and make a new facebook that's much simpler and doesn't involve any of this privacy-infringement non-sense?
 
MrGuvernment said:
Exactly, amazing how much people complain about a FREE SERVICE that no one forced you to sign up on or use, don't like it, leave and make your own site to share info on.
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Thank you for pointing this out.
 
It's free, but having more consumers for facebook means more value for them. And it costs us our privacy. Some don't mind that trade. Others would like to barter for a better deal with less cost (in privacy). It's business for facebook to do what they want. It's also business for consumers to try influence the service they get.

Btw, my wife signed me up. I didn't have a choice in the matter. I check it once a month while facebook mine's my data.
 
Parmenides said:
Btw, my wife signed me up. I didn't have a choice in the matter. I check it once a month while facebook mine's my data.
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Ouch!!!

I didn't like the policies 3-4 yrs ago and I like em even less now. Thats whay I am not a FB member. But my wife knows that and she knows it would pretty much be a ground for divorce.

BR
/F
 
not to mention the koobface virus going around. alot of my clients at work are getting that nasty little bit.
 
Parmenides said:
How about the customer pressuring a service into meeting their demands? Is that a bad thing?
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That's not how the free market works. The free market exists to make super corporations that then fuck you six ways from Sunday and you can't do crap about about it, unless the government comes to your defense.

This is the USA, fuck the consumer! Free market!
 
sd11 said:
That's not how the free market works. The free market exists to make super corporations that then fuck you six ways from Sunday and you can't do crap about about it, unless the government comes to your defense.

This is the USA, fuck the consumer! Free market!
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Government screws you over as well just not in this case so you're screwed regardless.
 
This article got me to jump back in and check my privacy settings. There was quite a bit of bullshit that I don't remember being in there not too long ago.
 
pigwalk said:
This article got me to jump back in and check my privacy settings. There was quite a bit of bullshit that I don't remember being in there not too long ago.
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Exactly why I went ahead and disabled my account.

I will miss the random messages from friends I have not heard from in several months, but I don't go on there often enough to watch my back. Can't blame them for wanting to make themselves more attractive to advertisers, but you can't blame me for wanting out.
 
webdev511 said:
I just don't become a fan of ANYTHING, don't play any games and set my preferances to share with friends ONLY. Facebook still remains useful for the things I started using facebook for in the first place.
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That's not enough. Some of your personal information is available to preferred partners (currently Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelp) by default if your friends use them. You have to explicitly block each application. Here's the tiny text below the opt out screen for Instant Personalization:

Please keep in mind that if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application. Learn more.
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This is more information than the application needs to perform its function, a clear violation of the principle of least privilege.
 
AVT said:
No shit, son. Facebook is a business. They exist to make money.
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I never said they weren't. My point was about ADVERTISING revenue, not making money per se. It's not their only revenue stream, but it's certainly the most lucrative. And the best way to increase that stream is to erode privacy. That ain't kosher.

With the certain knowledge that my personal information is already out there, I have taken on a bit of a Scorched Earth policy: Provide my information to as many contest, marketing, newsletter, and forum sites as possible, thereby devaluing its uniqueness to advertisers.
 
Simply deleting your account doesn't work either, they just deactivate it and you can reactivate it any time and all of your stuff will still be there. FB is a joke, I'm moving all of my personal information off of it and onto my own site.

Pages are now completely public, even if you have your privacy settings on the highest lock down, anybody (facebook user or not) can see your 'fan' or 'like'd' pages.

FB will pass any and all of your information off to whoever they damn well want to.

Pretty soon FB is launching it's own currency to be used in apps and games. With a 'population' of over 300 million and now its own currency, we might as well start calling FB a sovereign nation.

I'm pretty sure the 'privacy policy' is going to get so bad the government will have to step in. Which is disheartening to think about with all the other real problems that need to be fixed.
 
So facebook knows by birthday, knows what college I attend, knows the name of my girlfriend, knows my favorite bands, movies, TV shows, thinks I'm a fascist, and agnostic, and lastly.. it knows my school email address. How exactly does this harm me in any way? Not being sarcastic, I'm just having a hard time relating the doom and gloom posts to reality.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Exactly, amazing how much people complain about a FREE SERVICE that no one forced you to sign up on or use, don't like it, leave and make your own site to share info on.
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Awesome, I offer a free service where I come by and leave shit in a box on your doorstep. Make sure to opt out of it, even if someone else ops-you in for you.

Oh, we also use to offer you a paper on your door step instead of the shit in a box. Since then we changed our TOS and sent you a e-mail we knew you wouldn't read. Please enjoy your shit in a box as we continue to provide it to you.
 
I have not agreed to the last three revisions they had made to the agreement, so technically they can only give out the amount of info that the agreement I originally accepted allows, anything more then they can potentially be sued. If they don't like that, they can just cancel my account.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
So facebook knows by birthday, knows what college I attend, knows the name of my girlfriend, knows my favorite bands, movies, TV shows, thinks I'm a fascist, and agnostic, and lastly.. it knows my school email address. How exactly does this harm me in any way? Not being sarcastic, I'm just having a hard time relating the doom and gloom posts to reality.
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I don't know... maybe more anal tidbits for human resources to find out about you to justify that you won't be a good fit. Because we all know that HR knows best what makes a good fit. :p

"You like games? And you listen to that crap?" Sorry.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
So facebook knows by birthday, knows what college I attend, knows the name of my girlfriend, knows my favorite bands, movies, TV shows, thinks I'm a fascist, and agnostic, and lastly.. it knows my school email address. How exactly does this harm me in any way? Not being sarcastic, I'm just having a hard time relating the doom and gloom posts to reality.
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If I have your name and city, I can likely find your exact address on sites such as Canada 411. With your birthdate, that might be enough for me to get your bank to change your e-mail address to mine and reset your password... especially if I worked in retail and ever saw your debit or credit card.

vengence said:
Awesome, I offer a free service where I come by and leave shit in a box on your doorstep. Make sure to opt out of it, even if someone else ops-you in for you.

Oh, we also use to offer you a paper on your door step instead of the shit in a box. Since then we changed our TOS and sent you a e-mail we knew you wouldn't read. Please enjoy your shit in a box as we continue to provide it to you.
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You so win.
 
Emission said:
I know it's tough shit but if you don't like the policies then delete your account and call it a day, either that or delete the shit you don't want other people to see.
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You mean "Deactivate" your account ;)

Your personal data is kept on their server indefinitely.
 
Parmenides said:
I don't know... maybe more anal tidbits for human resources to find out about you to justify that you won't be a good fit. Because we all know that HR knows best what makes a good fit. :p

"You like games? And you listen to that crap?" Sorry.
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I just applied to Blizzard, so liking video games would work in my favor there. :D

srangara said:
If I have your name and city, I can likely find your exact address on sites such as Canada 411. With your birthdate, that might be enough for me to get your bank to change your e-mail address to mine and reset your password... especially if I worked in retail and ever saw your debit or credit card.
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So my facebook profile gives this:

Jon Gray
Student at Cal State University Fullerton
Date of Birth 10/31/1986

I didn't input my current location or hometown. Find me! Go! :D
 
Torquemada XP said:
I'm not one of the douches who decry anything related to social networking, but I'm close to dumping Facebook. I just logged in and was faced with the "make your connections" pop up that would not let me click out of it.
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i am...instant messaging and photobucket work well enough for me...i'm not enough of an egotistical prick that i need to post when i'm taking a dump/what i'm eating etc

social networking was great for my band...if i need anything else i'll make my own website or start a blog....seriously if people want to talk to me i have all the classic messengers...
 
Manaknight said:
i am...instant messaging and photobucket work well enough for me...i'm not enough of an egotistical prick that i need to post when i'm taking a dump/what i'm eating etc

social networking was great for my band...if i need anything else i'll make my own website or start a blog....seriously if people want to talk to me i have all the classic messengers...
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But then who will visit your blog? With Facebook, I can grab a funny video, article, whatever, and throw it up on my friend's wall, and my entire circle of friends can see it, comment, etc.

When hanging out together in person isn't possible, I'm finding Facebook is the next best thing.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
But then who will visit your blog? With Facebook, I can grab a funny video, article, whatever, and throw it up on my friend's wall, and my entire circle of friends can see it, comment, etc.

When hanging out together in person isn't possible, I'm finding Facebook is the next best thing.
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i guess it's harder for me because most of the people i am involved with have the same feelings about social networking. while part of my job is to watch internet trends... we tend to remain part of the previous generation, primarily instant messaging etc.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
So my facebook profile gives this:

Jon Gray
Student at Cal State University Fullerton
Date of Birth 10/31/1986

I didn't input my current location or hometown. Find me! Go! :D
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I can't find a Jon Gray at Cal State, Fullerton, so your information doesn't appear to be as public as you think it is.
 
SPARTAN VI said:
I just applied to Blizzard, so liking video games would work in my favor there. :D



So my facebook profile gives this:

Jon Gray
Student at Cal State University Fullerton
Date of Birth 10/31/1986

I didn't input my current location or hometown. Find me! Go! :D
Click to expand...

Jonathan R Gray. I'll PM you your city and relatives. You can tell me if it's you or not, but I'm pretty sure I've found you.
 
I'm glad I decided to delete mine, even though I barely used it anyway. For those saying you can only deactivate your account that is true because facebook hides the actually delete link. Here is a guide to deleting your account if you want to http://www.groovypost.com/howto/security/permanently-delete-your-facebook-profile-account/
The key thing is once you follow the step for deletion you cannot log into your account for 14 days or it will reactivate it and you have to start over. Now, whether facebook actually "deletes" it I don't know, but if I try to log in it tells me my email is not associated with an account.
 
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