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Nowhere to hide
Yesterday I wrote about Facebook and its applications, as well as several of the problems with the new system. There is one thing, however, that I did not talk about. The re-emergence of the lack of privacy on Facebook.
After all the fuss about collecting user information, Facebook gave the option to protect your account so that information could not be sent to third parties. Fair enough, problem solved. Right? Well, sorta...until you start dealing with the applications. What turned me right off of them was that in order to use them or sign up for them, you have to consent to having your information shared. So all the privacy protection has just gone out the window.
This is all well and good if you don't mind. But the illusion of privacy on Facebook has been in the news a lot lately, with employees and students getting in a lot of trouble for posting insulting or threatening information on the popular site. There is an endless line of students crying out how their free speech is being silenced. Which is, if you look at the laws (here in Canada at least), complete bullshit. Sure, everyone has the right to free speech. However, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms also states that if you use a right to oppress or suppress another person's rights, you are NOT protected. This is how the laws against hate speech work. So these students have a full right to dislike their teachers or principals, but they do NOT have the right to broadcast it to the world.
Yes, that's right, posting something on Facebook is essentially broadcasting it. This is the internet, a global community. The problem here is that people have yet to understand that with ANY website, especially social networking sites, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy (outside of transactions over secure servers, such as buying online; there you can expect information to be reasonably safe).
I'm not condemning these sites or the people who use them. I'm saying you need to understand the nature of the environment.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on July 6, 2007 9:59 PM | Permalink
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