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Facebook deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.
– Federal Trade Commission, August 2012
Notwithstanding its sagging over-hyped IPO, Facebook will continue to be a major force in the new and still experimental world of social networking. Facebook aims to grow into new markets, and has already moved into online gambling in the U.K., is now targeting children younger than 11 years old as new users, and according to The New York Times, Facebook has drawn the attention of German regulators who are reopening a probe into Facebook's use and abuse of facial recognition technology.
Although Facebook is not alone in harvesting and re-selling its users' personal information, it is the largest network doing so. We're not "declaring war" on Facebook; however, we are going to campaign for users to be more aware of ways that they can protect their personal privacy.
For Facebook Users Who Want to Maximize Their Privacy
Facebook practices a form of "strategic incompetence" in its approach to "enabling" users to control their privacy settings. There are eight different Facebook pages that offer users (the illusion of) "control" over some aspect of their privacy. Assuming you can find each of the eight pages, many of the options presented are confusing or counter-intuitive, and often, when you set one option, it cancels or changes an option on one of the other seven pages.
Recently we came across a free "app" that will help you master your Facebook privacy settings without having to negotiate Facebook's obstacle course. The app is in limited beta testing for Windows, but it is slated to be ported to iOS and Android if there is sufficient interest. We tried it out – and it worked for us.
For Those Who Prefer to BLOCK Facebook
Have you tried blocking Facebook on personal computers or quitting Facebook?
There plenty of good reasons to quit. Even after you cut the cord, though, you'll probably get e-mails trying to entice you back with invitations and suggestive messages "from friends" – because Facebook has your e-mail address.
For parents wanting to protect children from Facebook's seductions on home computers – and for business owners, government managers, libraries, and educators – here are a few ways to block Facebook from your computer(s) with the software you already own.
If you share our privacy concerns, please share those concerns with your family and friends.
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TSA's horrific body scanner-electronic strip searches and aggressive "pat-downs" of children and elderly Americans is now being followed-up with a new Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule to make aircraft data collected for navigation available real-time, online, to anyone. For no expressed reason (yet), the FAA wants to facilitate the electronic stalking of millions of private citizens, Members of Congress, patients on medical charter flights, business people earning a living, sports teams, and celebrities who fly on non-commercial aircraft.
Privacy of movement is a fundamental American Value. We believe the federal government should, to the greatest extent possible, protect such information rather than transmit it to anyone in the world with a computer connection.
– U.S. Chamber of Commerce, March 9, 2011
The American people never knew about TSA's electronic strip searches and aggressive pat-downs until it was too late. It's not too late to stop the FAA privacy invasion – but comments are due April 4! Act Now! Tell the FAA NO! Then get the word out: No more personal privacy grabs – especially if there is no stated purpose!
On March 4, 2011, the FAA slipped a notice into the Federal Register with only a 30 Day comment period. AOPA, NBAA and other Aviation groups caught the FAA in the act of a privacy grab and pulled the alarm. The U.S. Chamber, the NAM, Business Roundtable, and others are now getting the word out to fight yet another federal privacy invasion and steer America toward ... what ... the civil liberties of people who live in North Korea, China, or Iran?
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "the FAA's plan ... would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, a threat to the competitiveness of U.S. companies, and a potential risk to persons traveling on a general aviation aircraft... We do not believe there is any mode of transportation where public dissemination of private movements is warranted... The federal government should reject proposals that would facilitate the electronic stalking of Americans and American companies."
Here is the bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo of the Federal Register notice. Thankfully, aviation experts know what it means:
- Ed Bolen, CEO NBAA: "We are providing information to our federal government. We expect it to protected. To turn around and broadcast that information to unknown parties, against the person's will, really facilitates electronic stalking, which is dangerous, invasive and anti-competitive."
- Marion Blakey, CEO AIA: "The rule that the FAA is proposing would strip away that right to privacy ... when Americans get in their cars, they don't have to worry that strangers are able to follow their every movement. Why should citizens who fly their own aircraft be subject to such scrutiny?"
- Craig Fuller, CEO AOPA: "This struck me at the outset as somebody's solution to a problem that didn't exist. We're really arguing that the privacy provision that's been in place should remain in place for those among our 414,000 members and among the flying community who want to prevent disclosure to anyone who may desire to follow their aircraft ... will we need to justify why we might prefer not to have EZ Pass information released about where our private automobiles travel?"
The irony is that while the FAA wants to get into the business of providing real-time travel information about private citizens, according to Time Magazine, "Senator John Kerry, chair of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, is about to introduce a bill that would require private companies to make sure all the stuff they know about you is secured from hackers... He is doing this because, he argues, 'There's no code of conduct. There's no standard. There's nothing that safeguards privacy and establishes rules of the road.'" In the meantime, in Senate hearings on privacy scheduled for March 16, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will present views on how to protect American's dissolving privacy.
Perhaps the federal government's FTC should make a call across town to the federal government's FAA – or better yet, the FTC should issue comments to the FAA opposing the FAA's anti-privacy rule.
Millions of travelers enter the United States on a yearly basis carrying electronic devices – cell phones, laptops, MP3 players, I-Pads, thumb-drives, and clones, tablets – for both personal and business use. The U.S. federal government's Customs Service claims the government has the right to seize, "detain," download, and examine the content of any electronic device belong to any person – without any individualized suspicion – at the time of entry into the U.S.
TSA's electronic strip searches and aggressive pat-downs (fondling?) of children , senior citizens, American soldiers in uniform constitutes the most stupid and offensive affront to Americans' privacy rights that an unaccountable bureaucracy can inflict. The liberal-leaning ACLU AND the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation both agree – this government privacy invasion is historic and truly tragic.