Tech Blog

[#1]

As Brad points out in his weekly wrap up-This is the week that was... - Tech Blog - Future Shop Community Forums-Facebook is in some hot water with the Canadian Privacy Commissioner over its handling of our personal data. The bigger question is what of it? Should you leave Facebook? Would Facebook be banned from Canada? We don't have many answers now, but the ball is in Facebook's court right now. Here's what the fuss is all about.

Here's the gist (from the GAM Ottawa takes on social media giant for violating Canada's law - The Globe and Mail):

• Facebook keeps your personal data indefinitely, even if you delete your profile.
• Facebook controls on how application developers get access to your data are problematic
• Facebook's disclosures on memorial pages for people who have passed away aren't clear enough.
• How the personal information of non-Facebook users is handled isn't acceptable

Michael Geist, who is Canada's most authoritative voice on privacy and copyright issues, outlines the issues as well-

Michael Geist - Privacy Commissioner Finds Facebook Violating Canadian Privacy Law-I would watch his blog for updates on the legal details of this issue.

Okay, naughty, naughty Facebook. Now what?

Facebook has 30 days to respond to the Commissioner's findings, after that well the government of Canada can take Facebook to court for violating Canadian Federal Law. This is, for Facebook, a big deal. It's one thing to run afoul of third-party privacy watchdogs. They might file suit in court, but there isn't too, too much that can be done unless it becomes a class-action suit. This, however, is a horse of a different colour.

Will Facebook comply with the recommendations? Oh I bet they will. The argument that Facebook must keep your data indefinitely because most uses come back, is only partially defendable. I think keeping data for a week, maybe a month, at most is good enough. A quick look at the data of account deletion and return dates will show a peak at some point in time. I'm going to bet there is a big peak by about a month, after that it should drop off.

The rest of the points are going to be easy to manage I think. After Bradley was on GlobalTV BC on Friday morning talking about Facebook-Bradley’s recommended privacy settings for Facebook | M2O Blog-I took a look at my own application privacy settings--and turned them all off. Sorry Facebook app developers you aren't allowed get my data now. 

What do you think about Facebook's privacy plans? Both the Privacy Commissioner and others do give them props for having top of mind, but do they do enough?

Message Edited by ElizabethS on 09-10-2009 07:41 PM

[#2]

Facebook should be commended for two things at least.  Firstly, their privacy settings are sufficiently granular if you know how to use them. Secondly, as it recently demonstrated with the debacle over its Terms of Service changes, Facebook is willing to change in the face of criticism.

Where Facebook is dropping the ball is educating its users about how to protect their privacy and what's actually happening to their data behind the scenes.  Many people upload photos without stopping to think if they can later easily delete the photo (and if it will be gone permanently).  This isn't the fault of the users; as the service provider, the onus is on Facebook to communicate how it treats the data it collects.  As easy as Facebook's privacy settings UI is, not everyone knows its there, and those who do know it's there don't always know how best to use it.  Apparently Facebook will be launching a "privacy wizard" soon that will help users tweak their privacy settings in a more accessible manner.

I also have to criticize Facebook's reaction to the applications privacy issue.  It's just laziness on Facebook's part to refuse to differentiate between third-party applications that have legitimate use for my data and applications that just need my name and permission to post to my feed. 

While the privacy commissioner's report is interesting and underscores important issues that Facebook should address, I'm not going to paint Facebook as a villain here.  This is just the latest development in ongoing privacy-related news as social networks continue to destroy the finely-tuned online/offline dichotomy, and it won't be the last development.

[#3]

When I closed my Facebook account I expected every trace of me to vanish (except pictures that my close friends had).  To think that my identity is still out there in cyberland against my wishes (and until now, my knowledge) make me furious.  And I'm definitely not going back.

[#4]

@tachyondecay yes that's exactly the point. Facebook isn't the villain here, at least not yet, the Privacy Commissioner is just doing her job. In fact looking at the complete report there are many cases where it was would that there was no merit to a privacy complaint and Facebook was doing its job well.

That said, @Credible_Chris is also correct. Facebook doesn't need your data forever. Keeping it for a week or month (max) in case someone changed their minds is fine. Keeping general non-specific data for demographics is fine (like it would be very interesting to know the demographics of people who leave Facebook), but beyond that no dice. If the data are there, then they could be made available to 3rd parties and since the TOS and such have been fluid over the years, it isn't nuts to think they have been.

When PIPEDA (the privacy law) came into effect, I was working in pharma at the time. We had to prepare for cases like doctors asking for all the information we had in our files on them (which is often a lot) and if they wished having it expunged from our records.

Of course companies are given a reasonable period of time to get this done, but the fact was that it had to be done and not doing so was not an option. 

I think Facebook's response 30 days from now will be very interesting to read (since they have resisted removing the data of people who have quit FB before).