Internet attorney blog discussing cyber law
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Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has been playing games with user privacy for the past year. Every time Facebook users have complained in the past about abuse and misuse of their information, Facebook’s flipped the bird in response. After intense pressure from the public, governmental entities launching investigations, and privacy advocates circling with lawyers, Facebook now plays the role of repentant sinner this week with a “simplified” privacy overhaul that is supposed to be user-friendly and protect data from the search engines, third party apps, etc.
Let’s cut to the chase. There is no reason to believe that Facebook or its founder cares one iota what you think about privacy. Indeed, Zuckerberg has made it clear even now that he thinks Facebook users would prefer to share their data instead of keeping it private.
So why the change with the new Facebook Privacy-Friendly Happy Face? Facebook’s investors are unhappy campers watching Zuckerberg nearly turn their “next Google” investment into a cyber-Titanic by being an uncaring twit who disrespected his target market. So the hired guns were called in to stop the iceberg from sinking the ship. Facebook hired a former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chairman to fend off the FTC and Congress. And the full court press of PR spin doctors went out to sing the praises of the reformed Facebook.
Is it possible that Facebook’s privacy stance is legit? Sure. As long as it needs to be to keep the company afloat and the government at bay.
Would I trust my data with Facebook? No. They haven’t earned anyone’s trust with the way they’ve acted. Honesty forced at the point of a gun lasts only until the gun is turned on someone else.
This isn’t hypothetical. Until today, I had a Facebook account. No more.
At one time, there were over 3,300 Facebook friends. Given the overwhelming number of invitations and notices for nuisance applications involving mafia wars, farming, zoos, etc., in December, I got rid of over 90% of these friends who were cluttering my life with unwanted anecdotes and app notices.
The final straw is Facebook’s absolute disregard for your personal privacy. Although Facebook has repeatedly changed its privacy policy, it is still unclear who gets what information about you as a Facebook account holder. Frankly, I’m not sure if Facebook actually honors its policy now or in the past.
In particular, Facebook has taken a very “everything’s public” stance on your account content, including your photos, sexual orientation, relationship status, posts regarding your business and personal life. Even when you block applications from seeing your personal data, it is unclear and unlikely that apps harvesting data from a friend’s Facebook account who use them will respect your privacy.
And if you don’t trust Facebook to safeguard your personal information in your Facebook Account, why use it?
For example, let’s say that a Russian hacker develops a cute little app one of your friends installs that involves saving baby seals, curing cancer, protecting the children, etc. On its face, the app sounds like it is doing something noble. But what if that hacker’s app is harvesting your Facebook data simply because your FB friend installed it? Even though you have nothing to do with the app and may not know of its existence?
Would the stuff you post (and friends post about you) on Facebook be enough information for someone to steal your identity, get new credit cards, hack your Facebook account or e-mail? Did you know that the top keyword searches online for “facebook account” also involve the word “hack.” Yes, that’s right. The number one goal of those searching online for information about Facebook accounts want to know how to hack those accounts. Does that make you feel safe?
It doesn’t even have to be a malware app that does it. For instance, a Facebook software glitch recently allowed users to read other people’s FB chat conversations without their knowledge or permission.
What about data mining for legitimate profit? Is Facebook or any of its app developers creating profiles from the data it collects about you, cross-referencing it with other data available elsewhere, and targeting you both offline and online for marketing based upon your information? Let’s face it. Facebook has very few alternatives for making money except by using/misusing your personal information by selling it to others. The same goes for free Facebook applications.
Facebook’s flippant attitude toward your personal privacy is just one reason that Congress and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are taking a hard look at cracking down on Internet privacy abuses. And the company asked for it by mistreating you as a “friend.”
How do you delete your Facebook account?
Here’s what I recommend as of today (of course, Facebook may change links and policies over time so be aware that they may have different obstacles in place if you wait to do it.
1. Delete all the information about you in your profile. Everything.
2. Delete all of your “friends.”
3. Delete all of your photos (including photo albums and profile photos) and untag yourself in photos your friends posted and then tagged you.
4. Delete your Facebook account.
Note that deleting is different than deactivating. If you deactivate your account, everything stays in place and you could come back a year from now and likely be able to log in and see everything just as you left it.
Even when you delete your account, Facebook will still let you back in for 14 days. Hint: If it is a habit to log into Facebook, make it difficult to do so for at least two weeks after you’ve deleted the account.
Perhaps Facebook will one day respect your privacy because it is the right thing to do or because the law requires it to do so.
Until that time, Facebook doesn’t deserve your information because the company doesn’t respect how important your data is to you. Delete your Facebook account and move on.
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