Facebook and privacy… again
If you’re a Facebook user, you may have come across this recently, usually forwarded as a Wall post:
Facebook has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures without your permission. Click on “Settings” up at the top where you see the “Log Out” link. Select “Privacy Settings”. Then select “News Feed And Wall”. Next select the tab that reads “Facebook Ads”. There is a drop down box, select “No One”. Then save your changes.
I don’t know if Facebook have really ‘agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures’ but it wouldn’t surprise me; after all, Facebook don’t have a good record in this area.
And it’s this lack of a good track record that makes me wonder why people are surprised. As I commented today on a friend’s Facebook page, all Facebook want to do is run a successful, profitable business. They don’t care about your privacy.
But, as users, we also have to take responsibility for our own privacy. If we don’t care about it, then no one else will. Do we really need to put all that information on Facebook? Could we scale it down a bit? Perhaps not put our whole life on there?
After all, this is the Internet. It’s a public information exchange; no part of the internet is private, no matter how it appears. If you don’t want lots of people using your pictures, or knowing your personal information, then don’t put it online. Simple as that. If you do put it online, be aware that it is not secure. The internet is not a gated community; there are no borders to protect you – you have to protect yourself.
Update: Facebook have written a post, addressing this issue of third-party use of pictures and stating that this does not happen and that they do care about your privacy after all. So, it seems like this particular issue is just a false rumour, but my advice still stands; it’s the internet – it’s not private, so protect yourself.
Brief Notes
Couple of things that I’ve noticed recently:
1. Apparently, from tomorrow Sainsbury’s will be asking anyone who looks as if they’re under 25 to prove their age before they can buy age restricted products. The sign I saw didn’t specify which age restricted products they were talking about, but according to the Trading Standards website all the restricted products such as knives, alcohol, tobacco and so on can be sold to anyone over 18.
Which leads me to wonder why anyone that looks under 25 is being carded? Surely you only need to prove your age if you are over 18 but don’t look it? It’s a ridiculous policy and should be outlawed.
2. Mobile phone directory 118 800 is getting a lot of coverage at the moment, unfortunately (for them) none of it positive. In case you haven’t heard, they’ve attempted to launch a directory enquiries service that enables people to ring up and get connected to your mobile phone. The directory has, apparently, been put together from lists already in the public domain and covers approximately a third of all mobile numbers
As described by 118 800, the service they operate won’t actually reveal your mobile number to anyone and you won’t receive any calls that you don’t agree to. What you will get, though, is a text from 118 800 to tell you that someone wants to speak to you; you then decide if you want to take the call and, if you do, they get put through.
When the 118 800 service is back online (they are having “teething” problems at the moment and have taken themselves offline), you’ll be able to ask for your number to go ex-directory and it’s this that seems to have got everyone worked up. For some reason, people have assumed that their mobile number is somehow uniquely private and that no-one should be able to know what it is. This, of course, is patently not the case; none of the mobile operators (as far as I know) promise to keep your number secret and every time you give your mobile number to a third party, you’re risking that data being sold on.
I think the idea does have merits; so many people now have their mobile as their only phone number that it seems a good idea to have mobile numbers in the directory alongside landline numbers. But in these days where around 50% of landline customers are ex-directory, it would have been a much better idea for the mobile operators to get their customers to opt-in to a directory and then make that information available to services like 118 800.
Wolfs Helpers
