Many users are upset with Facebook and their lack of privacy. In a recent poll, 60% are willing to delete their Facebook profiles due to personal information being shared.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will soon announce changes to their privacy settings, that will make it easier for users to have more control over their personal information that is shared. (what?!? you mean my information is being shared with other people than my "friends"?!?)
What many users may not realize is that personal pictures, information, and statuses are shared and easily able to access. Facebook now, after all this time, will make it easier for its 400 million users to determine who gets to view their personal information. Why didn't Facebook, and other companies for that matter, think about that before? Unfortunately, many social networking companies did not think about privacy and security issues from the start and it is now hurting them in the long run. What was Facebooks excuse? Zuckerberg said the site is growing so fast and it had to keep up with the fast pace. That's no excuse to not think about privacy and security.
What is Facebook going to do now? Remove a program that shares users ID and other information to advertisers. Yeah, i bet many -if not half of the 400 million users did not know that when you click on an advertisement on Facebook, all your personal data is given to that company. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission was called to investigate Facebook's privacy tools. The FTC is now going to start working on a privacy framework for these social networking sites. How long did this take? Shouldn't this have been thought of before? A new bill is going to limit how much data is collected from advertisers without user consent.
And it seems that once a user is on Facebook, it is hard to delete an account. Why is that? It should be as simple as a "delete" button. Facebook requires users to submit a request to have their profile deleted and even that takes up to 14 days. Within the 14 days, if the user logs on, their request to delete is canceled.
Kinda makes me rethink my Facebook account. When I signed on years ago, I didn't think my personal information would be passed on. I thought it would be a great way to stay connected to friends and family in different states. I also didn't think of how hard it would be to delete an account. That makes me wonder what they are up to....
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Blog I: I Support Google!
According to Newsweek, Google strives to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." It has been all over the news how China wanted Google to censor its search results. Although Google tacitly complied for a time, they eventually withdrew services from China. By withdrawing services, Google is protecting their status as a happy company at peace with its values. They no longer want to "bow down to government pressure to censor results." Even though the company will lose billions of dollars in future profits, they stand behind their mission to provide information to all without censorship.
As a major business company, I believe that says a lot about Google. They are keeping their users best interest at hand. They are willing to lose billions of dollars, because they believe in the First Amendment, and the right to give users free access to information without censorship.
The withdraw of Google in China is similar to libraries. Libraries believe in providing access on every type of material, regardless of content. Although there are times we are faced with challenges, we too have to think of our patrons and the First Amendment. We fight to keep books on the shelves, and materials available to all without censoring. I support Google for not censoring in China, and I support all libraries that do not censor! Let's give people the right to receive the information that they want.
Leonsis, Ted. How to build a happy company. Newsweek: April 12, 2010.
Liu, Melinda. China's mixed signals. Newsweek: April 5, 2010.
As a major business company, I believe that says a lot about Google. They are keeping their users best interest at hand. They are willing to lose billions of dollars, because they believe in the First Amendment, and the right to give users free access to information without censorship.
The withdraw of Google in China is similar to libraries. Libraries believe in providing access on every type of material, regardless of content. Although there are times we are faced with challenges, we too have to think of our patrons and the First Amendment. We fight to keep books on the shelves, and materials available to all without censoring. I support Google for not censoring in China, and I support all libraries that do not censor! Let's give people the right to receive the information that they want.
Leonsis, Ted. How to build a happy company. Newsweek: April 12, 2010.
Liu, Melinda. China's mixed signals. Newsweek: April 5, 2010.
~Welcome~
Hi! Welcome to my blog on Intellectual Freedom. I am a graduate student at IUPUI, working on a Master's degree in Library Science. As a librarian, it is my job to provide access to information, without any restrictions, to all. With that in mind, I will be posting information that supports Intellectual Freedom and the First Amendment.
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