There is a saying "Place a frog in boiling water and it will jump out. But put it in a pot of water thats slowly warming up and soon you'll have a boiled frog." Helen A.S Popkin (a writer for MSNBC tech) uses this metaphor to describe facebook.com's latest decision that it is going to give users' phone #s and addresses away to third parties. Facebook little by little is striping its users of their privacy. The users of Facebook are letting it happen.
Helen A.S Popkin has said "Facebook is the slowly warming pot of water and we, my friends, are the frog. By the time we noticed our peeling skin, another hunk of our privacy is long gone," Facebook users' need to open their eyes and demand that their right to privacy be protected.
Warning to all you out there that the information you share with Facebook may not be as private as you think it is.
Lots of us have Facebooks, including Mr. Silton. In a generation that seems to have an obsession with letting everyone know what were doing 24/7 people need to be more conscious of the things they post. Once somethings on the internet, its there forever. It may get barried by other things but its still out there for anyone to dig up.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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5 comments:
The way I see it, we only let facebook use the information we let it have. If you don't put your phone number, address, etc. on facebook, how are they going to give it to third parties? (I imagine some online searching might give them the answer, but I feel like that would be a violation of personal privacy, and I would definitely be one of the first to bring them to court - after making sure it was my right, of course ;])
Kayla's absolutely right. Posting online, whether it be on facebook, twitter, tumblr, or even this very blog, should be done with caution. Don't type anything you don't want to be seen by people you don't know (or people you do know), and it's always better to be safe than sorry.
There are certain things like using facebook on your phone that make me wonder. I know lots of people who have facebook apps on their phones, do their accounts get connected to their phones automatically? Another problem I have with facebook's privacy is its kind of hard to figure out what your account looks like to those your not friends with? I was talking to a teacher who has a facebook and doesn't friend students, she didn't want students to be able to find her account but with in a couple minutes of searching I was able to find her. Facebook is constantly changing is layout and their privacy settings can be confusing which is why I think a majority of people just don't bother to look hard enough to figure it all out. Facebook tries to be all user friendly, I just don't think that their concerned enough with user privacy.
I agree with Kayla- the privacy settings on facebook are just too hard to figure out. I was educated as a little kid to not put anything online- even my full name, and I continue that to this day. Even though I might want my friends to know what kind of music I like or my birthday, I don't want strangers (or even people I kinda know who are "friends of friends") knowing that stuff, and I definitely don't want facebook sending it to third parties. As a result, my facebook profile has my nickname, current school, city, and future school. My account doesn't have a phone number, address, or anything else attached to it. I also have decided to be freakishly paranoid about my facebook- I only friend people I know well (read: see every day) or am related to, and I have all my privacy settings on "friends only." I think that it is true that facebook's privacy settings are confusing, but that doesn't mean we can't protect ourselves.
While I think it is important users of facebook protect themselves, I also think that facebook is wrong to sell this information. Even if they tell us they're going to in a notice at the top -- which we all just exit out of -- or a new privacy agreement -- which no one ever reads anyway -- they don't have the right to sell that stuff unless they really know that we understand and agree to it. I remember when people were first getting worried about Google's expansion into email and stuff, but Google has the philosophy "Do no harm." I guess that it would be too idealistic to believe that facebook could follow the same philosophy, but it would be nice to think that the sites we frequent online recognize our collective privacy-related incompetence and attempt to protect it for us.
Wow, that saying is very fitting! I wish, however, that is wasn't. I don't like the fact that Facebook has decided to give away users phone numbers because I doubt that people want unknown third parties getting their hands on personal information like that. Even though we put a ton of personal information on Facebook, that is with our permission. The problem with putting stuff on the Internet is that you don't know where it's going to end up, and it's impossible to find out who's viewing your information. I am disappointed with you, Mark Zuckerberg.
Kathy--I'm the same way with my privacy setting everything is set to Friends Only. But I think facebook should make that the default setting. That way people have to go in a change things that they want everyone to see.
Gurjote-- Facebook has always given away information out on its users. Before the phone # and addresses it was the things you liked, your interest, and what not.
Its kind of like what Mr. Silton was talking about today in class. Stores log all the information about in there computers and knows when your a new customer or a returning customer. A new customer might be given a coupon so they come back and shop again. Facebook record all of your interests and then puts ads along the side that are similar to what you've liked.
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