According to NetworkWorld, Facebook has settled with the FTC over privacy deception violations. Facebook was charged with deceiving their customers and stating they could have their information be as private as they wanted it to be, when in reality it wasn't private at all. To this Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook replied, "We've made a bunch of mistakes". No kidding Mark... I can't go a week in Facebook without knowing whether or not a privacy change has been made that gives away more of my information to whoever wants it.
To read the whole formal FTC complaint click here. Read on to see the settlement.
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Massachusetts has announced plans to deploy vehicle-mounted police scanners that will capture thousands of license plates an hour and store them indefinitely.
Police say the devices will help quickly identify criminals and check for police alerts, while civil rights advocates feel that it is a "Big Brother" style over-reach of police power. I'm in agreement with civil rights groups - it's unlikely that these devices will reduce crime and will more likely be used as a way to generate additional revenue for the state via increased collection on traffic warrants.
Britain, one of the most heavily surveilled countries in the first world, has not seen a decline in crime after dpending billions of dollars on equipment and manpower.
CNET's Elinor Mills provides a chart breakdown of all the security breaches that have occurred during the past three months. It's a pretty sobering list and makes us wonder what the summer has in store for us.
Wired is reporting on an inept attempt on the part of Facebook to create a negative PR campaign painting Google as a violator of its users' privacy. I'm sure the irony of the above statement isn't lost on anyone.
Email marketing company Epsilon International has suffered a breach of their email address database, exposing the databases of 2500 clients such as TiVo, LLBean and many others to phishing attacks.
Definitely loving the infographics today.
Mashable has a great write-up on a dirty little secret of the internet - despite all the concerns about privacy (or the lack thereof) on Facebook and other sites, the fact remains that most go unread. The reason: they're just too freaking long.
The most recent XKCD comic (full image below) points out one of the dangers of password reuse.
At the Wall Street Journal's D8 conference, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed by the WSJ's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. With all the controversy swirling around Facebook's privacy policies right now, this was a terrific opportunity for Zuckerberg to step up, articulate his company's position, and calm fears that the social media site is an enterprise solely devoted to using its users' private data to earn gobs of money from advertisers.
He failed miserably.
Charming Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg comments in a Washington Post op-ed piece that the company "missed the mark" with its recent changes to its privacy policies and will make privacy choices simpler in the future. Zuckerberg blames the failures on incorrect assumptions about users' privacy desires and the company's insane growth rate. He also claims that the company is continuing to listen to its users.
Perhaps Zuck is listening due to one or more of the following reasons:
- A study reports 60% of Facebook users are considering leaving the service;
- Openbook displays just how public your updates are;
- A Wall Street Journal article outlined how Facebook shared supposedly private user data with advertisers;
- A number of websites have popped up helping you understand what Facebook is sharing about you.
A friend of mine recently posted an update to Facebook saying "Mondays have become "Let's see what facebook has done to eliminate my privacy" days. Check your Application settings, review which information is being shared outside your network. Check authorized applications, uncheck Ads and Pages. "