Thursday 12 April 2012

Are Facebook Privacy Disclosures Sufficient to Satisfy Users' Concerns?

Facebook has been under intense criticism since last few months regarding privacy concerns all around the globe. Everyone is taking it quite seriously. And things are changing quite rapidly regarding company's control of user data and disclosure policies.

There is a general sentiment about this social platform everywhere - people love it. But they have also started to get scared of it. Rightfully so! They have every reason to love it. And they have every reason to be afraid of it.

Facebook Privacy: Image Courtesy of Mashable














Facebook today resembles a friendly ghost!

You know that it is your friend today. But you don't know when and how it will hurt you tomorrow. And you will not be able to do a single thing against a ghost who safeguards all your secrets and history.

According to a recent New York times report,

"The archive Facebook published two years ago gave users a copy of their photos, posts, messages, list of friends and chat conversations. The new version, Facebook said, includes previous user names, friend requests and the Internet protocol addresses of the computers that users have logged in from. More categories of information will be made available in the future, Facebook said."
 
So your ghost friend has been tracking you all the way along?What can you do when you have made a deal with the devil?

“We welcome that Facebook users are now getting more access to their data, but Facebook is still not in line with the European Data Protection Law,” said Mr. Schrems, a student at the University of Vienna. “With the changes, Facebook will only offer access to 39 data categories, while it is holding at least 84 such data categories about every user.”

But there is a slight problem. I do not mind having a ghost friend traveling and tracking me. I only hate it lying to me.

Here is another excerpt from the report:

"In 2011, Mr. Schrems (a student at German law student) requested his own data from Facebook and received files with information in 57 categories. The disclosure, Mr. Schrems said, showed that Facebook was keeping information he had previously deleted from the Web site, and was also storing information on his whereabouts, gleaned from his computer’s I.P. address."

In the end, decision still remains yours. Either you keep dragging yourself with the dangers of being played by your ghost friend or you simply avoid it by saying Goodbye.


Read more about the New York Times report on Facebook privacy