Facebook knows your dirty secrets
Andrew Bates
Issue date: 3/2/10 Section: Technology
CUP Western Bureau Chief
KELOWNA, B.C. (CUP) - As we start the new decade, there is clearly one great difference from the last: we are on the Internet now more than we have ever been. We're also more connected now than we have ever been.
More than 350 million users have joined Facebook since the site opened in 2004. Between Gmail, Google's retained search data, YouTube and Google Image Search, huge amounts of our information is stored on the Internet with one company. Google's unofficial motto since its founding has been "Don't be evil". But is that true of the Internet as a whole?
Issues of privacy on Facebook have recently come to the forefront thanks to Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who identified several concerns with Facebook's operation, including the sharing of personal information, the storage of personal information after Facebook accounts close and the confusing nature of the site's privacy information.
According to Richard Rosenberg, a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia, the fact that Canada takes a leadership role on privacy structure is unique in North America.
"When they operate in the States, they don't really have privacy laws they have to deal with except individual ones in states, which are quite weak," he said.
One of the big problems with social networking, according to Rosenberg, is the storage of information.
"You get to post pictures, you get to tell your friends where you're travelling and who you've met recently, and so on. It's a social network, after all. That's exactly what you want to do," he said. "The long-term problem is, suppose you want to get off Facebook. What happens to all that information that's been gathered there?"
Some of the changes that were made after Stoddart's concerns were brought to light last year include the ability to change the privacy protection of each individual post you make on Facebook, a move away from using networks to share information, and clearer controls when it comes to third-party applications.
KELOWNA, B.C. (CUP) - As we start the new decade, there is clearly one great difference from the last: we are on the Internet now more than we have ever been. We're also more connected now than we have ever been.
More than 350 million users have joined Facebook since the site opened in 2004. Between Gmail, Google's retained search data, YouTube and Google Image Search, huge amounts of our information is stored on the Internet with one company. Google's unofficial motto since its founding has been "Don't be evil". But is that true of the Internet as a whole?
Issues of privacy on Facebook have recently come to the forefront thanks to Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart, who identified several concerns with Facebook's operation, including the sharing of personal information, the storage of personal information after Facebook accounts close and the confusing nature of the site's privacy information.
According to Richard Rosenberg, a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia, the fact that Canada takes a leadership role on privacy structure is unique in North America.
"When they operate in the States, they don't really have privacy laws they have to deal with except individual ones in states, which are quite weak," he said.
One of the big problems with social networking, according to Rosenberg, is the storage of information.
"You get to post pictures, you get to tell your friends where you're travelling and who you've met recently, and so on. It's a social network, after all. That's exactly what you want to do," he said. "The long-term problem is, suppose you want to get off Facebook. What happens to all that information that's been gathered there?"
Some of the changes that were made after Stoddart's concerns were brought to light last year include the ability to change the privacy protection of each individual post you make on Facebook, a move away from using networks to share information, and clearer controls when it comes to third-party applications.
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