Privacy complaint filed in Canada

In keeping with the anti-Facebook series (see Facebook Privacy Concerns, 10 reasons Facebook is hated, Short stats about Facebook, and Facebook policy contradictions?), here’s a news update.

The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (of the University of Ottawa) listed 22 violations of Canadian privacy laws. They have officially filed a complaint against Facebook for these violations.

Essentially, the claims revolve around users’ private information being shared beyond what they have given consent to share. Instances include third-party applications, in which too much information (most of which is unneeded) is being provided to the third parties.

If you’re not leaving Facebook already, take this as a sign that you might not want to keep using it: Leo Laporte expressed frustrations with Facebook on one of the TWiT podcasts, net@night, when he talked about Facebook’s undelivered promises that users will be able to add more than 5000 friends.

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Facebook policy contradictions?

Continuing on with the anti-Facebook series, I’d like to point out some contradictory phrases in the Facebook Terms of Use and in the Content Code of Conduct.

This post will focus on the “right” of any Facebook user to add photos of someone else, or photos taken by someone else.

What the highlighted sections say is that one isn’t permitted to upload/post/transmit/share/store photographs or videos other than those which are personally relevant (ie. created by you or a friend). The contrapositive is that if a photograph or video was not created by you or a friend, you are not permitted to upload/post/transmit/share/store it.

What this allows one to do is upload works created by others. Others, being defined as “friends”. “Friends”, being defined as ???

I’m trying to point out that it includes works created by “your friends” in things you can upload, but doesn’t define what a friend is. Is a “friend” a Facebook friend who has been added to your list of relations? Or, is a “friend” anyone with whom you claim to have a relationship?

Does this also mean that any of the 5000 people Leo Laporte has on his Facebook Friends list are allowed to upload videos “of a personal nature” of Leo Laporte? That seems to be allowed under the highlighted section.

But I haven’t yet pointed out the contradiction.

Here it is: “you may not post, transmit, or share User Content on the Site or Service that you did not create or that you do not have permission to post.” If, according to the second screenshot in this post, you are allowed to upload photographs and videos created by your friends, while you are not allowed to upload items you did not create or do not have permission to post, which one takes precedence?

Does Facebook mean that you are allowed to upload things you did not create that were created by your friends? That seems the likeliest explanation. Yet, by that definition, if such photographs and videos are permitted, then the second clause must also be false: “that you do not have permission to post.”

In simpler terms, you are granting your friends the right to post your photographs and videos with the implicit understanding that anything you create, they have permission to post.

Stick around for the next post, where I point out parts where non-members can be harmed.

(5 votes, average: 3.4 out of 5)

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Short stats about Facebook

Yes, simply continuing my ranting series of anti-Facebook posts.

I kind of subscribe to the electronic version of Revenue magazine. In the recent January/February 2008 edition, there’s a large section about Facebook. Here are some stats from that article:

• About half of Facebook users are not in college (or, as we call them in Canada, university)
• More than 41% of Facebook users are age 35 and over - what sort of impression does this give you? how does this impact the young users?
• Facebook has an estimated worth of $15 billion
• An online marketing consultant spent $500 on ads on Facebook, and the return was $15

You should read the rest of the article: pages 66 to 71 in the January/February 2008 edition.
You can also download this magazine as a self-contained e-book reader in a compressed ZIP archive.

(4 votes, average: 2.75 out of 5)

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10 reasons Facebook is hated

I’m not posting this, someone else has. Go and read “10 Reasons I Hate Facebook“. Almost sums it up perfectly.

The one I probably agree more intensely than the privacy point is the amount of e-mail. Well, yeah. That’s why I completely removed myself from all current and future mailings from Facebook. This was a link in one of the annoying messages titled “—– has added you as a Friend on Facebook”. (And I never even had an account… never gave Facebook permission to flood my inbox with dozens of similar messages.) I simply chose the legally-valid action: opt-out.

I’m never going to sign up for Facebook, even if I desperately need to find someone. And if you can resist your urges, refuse using Facebook, you can be a noble person too.

(5 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Facebook Privacy Concerns

This is my first post in a series about Facebook and why you shouldn’t be using it.

In their own words

From the Facebook Privacy Policy:

You post User Content (as defined in the Facebook Terms of Use) on the Site at your own risk. Although we allow you to set privacy options that limit access to your pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We cannot control the actions of other Users with whom you may choose to share your pages and information. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that User Content you post on the Site will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Site. You understand and acknowledge that, even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User Content.

Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.

When you use Facebook, certain information you post or share with third parties (e.g., a friend or someone in your network), such as personal information, comments, messages, photos, videos, Marketplace listings or other information, may be shared with other users in accordance with the privacy settings you select. All such sharing of information is done at your own risk. Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos, Marketplace listings or other items , this information may become publicly available.

In simple English: Facebook collects a huge amount of information about you and makes that huge amount of information available to others.

Do the users ever read this?

I truly wonder whether the children between the ages of 13 and 18 ever read the Privacy Policy, and if so, whether or not they understand it.

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(5 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)

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