A new documentary; "Mark Zuckerberg Inside Facebook".

"In just seven years, Mark Zuckerberg has gone from his Harvard college dorm to running a business with 800 million users, and a possible value of $100 billion. His idea to 'make the world more open and connected' has sparked a revolution in communication, and now looks set to have a huge impact on business too.

Emily Maitlis reports on life inside Facebook. Featuring a rare interview with Zuckerberg himself, the film tells the story of Facebook's creation, looks at the accuracy of The Social Network movie, and examines Facebook's plans to use the personal information it has collected to power a new kind of online advertising."

/\ Was there ever any doubt?


Sure, lots of sites collect 'personal information'.

And perhaps, unbeknownst to the e-uninitiated and people who surf the interwebs from a somewhat naive perspective of assumed privacy and e-anonymity.


However.. given FaceBook's record with respect to privacy concerns and I quote from the EPIC webpage;

"In response to several complaints filed by EPIC with the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook announced that it would make some changes in its business practices, including providing more accurate information about the disclosure of user data to others and new safeguards for photo tagging. EPIC, along with several privacy organizations, filed several complaints with the FTC about FB's automated tagging of users, changes in Privacy settings, and transfers of personal data, stating that Facebook's practices were "unfair and deceptive." Facebook's recent actions address some but not all of the issues raised by the consumer organizations. The complaint at the FTC are still pending. For more information see EPIC: Facebook Privacy. (Aug. 29, 2011)"


Further..

"Federal Trade Commission Announces Settlement in EPIC Facebook Privacy Complaint: The Federal Trade Commission has announced an agreement with Facebook that follows from complaints filed by EPIC and other consumer and privacy organizations in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, the EPIC first asked the FTC to investigate Facebook's decision to change its users' privacy settings in a way that made users' personal information, such as Friend lists and application usage data, more widely available to the public and to Facebook’s business partners. The violations are also detailed in the FTC’s 8-count complaint against the company. The proposed settlement agreement bars Facebook from making future changes privacy settings without the affirmative consent of users and requires the company to implement a comprehensive privacy protection program and submit to independent privacy audits for 20 years. The settlement does not adopt EPIC's recommendation that Facebook restore users' privacy settings to pre-2009 levels. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reacted to the settlement in a post on Facebook's blog, saying that he was "first to admit that we've made a bunch of mistakes." For more information, see EPIC: In re Facebook, and EPIC: Federal Trade Commission. (Nov. 29, 2011)"


So.. Facebook.

Are 'you' aware, and more importantly ... adequately informed of the use of the personal information currently being mined/collected about 'you'?

Do 'you' feel that the site's Terms of Service/Use/Subscriber Agreement.. is transparent enough as it stands now?


Are 'you' even aware of any issues/concerns?

Or.. if aware, are 'you' concerned?

I was aware there were concerns with Facebook, and I never joined... partly because even if one joins thinking "it will be alright and I will be good", you can get carried away in the heat of talking and say things you regret. Or you get your settings wrong... or you fail to realize that something or other (like your email address) is on display, when you thought it was hidden.

I felt even colder when I read somewhere that companies search Facebook before hiring you. It just seems like a time bomb waiting to explode.

I'll read more later (couldn't get through it now). I have never had a concern about FaceBook, because I treat it the way I treat all websites. With a fair amount of reasonably paranoid expectation.

I have little to no expectation of real privacy, just that for the most part, my sharing is limited in reach to those who are most likely to be paying attention.

I expect that anything that I do on-line may become public at some point, and I choose my words and actions accordingly.

I expect that data may be gathered about me from any website I use, including my financial ones, and I think about what data might be gathered, and why, and decide whether it is worth it to me. So far, I don't see a difference between this and general statistics gathered by examining credit card purchases as a whole, numbers of students using free lunch programs, etc.

The only things that I have wanted to make it impossible for people to do on Facebook have been available to me through the security controls, and have worked, until this last set of changes. As far as I am concerned, the news ticker is invasive, because it allows people to see your *other* activity and interaction with other people, no matter what settings you have locked down. I expect that this will be adjusted in the near future, and in the meantime, I use it primarily for playing games, and continue to post nothing publicly that I wouldn't be fine with it being said publicly if it came down to it.

Although I refuse to "friend" any of my co-workers, as I believe this makes it too easy for things you weren't intending to share to get around.

I never put/do anything on facebook I would be uncomfortable with the "general public" seeing.

As far as this "targeted marketing" guff goes, from what I've experienced so far it seems to be a load of twaddle. Even ebay sends me suggestions I would never buy in a thousand years (much of it womens clothing/jewellery) and they have far more info on what I am actually likely to spend money on than FB does.

THe only thing I would be mildly concerned about is if sites gave out my email to spammers, but I get that already, so it would just be a slightly bigger nuisance than it already is.

I think we need to not forget that Facebook is not a charitable institution kindly sharing their site for the benefit of individuals to share their thoughts/experiences/photos/relationship problems/wishes/fears/loves/hates/expertise in addictive games, or to promote themselves/their business.
Its main purpose is to make money from its advertisers. Ads we see are matched to the profile that is built from our activities on the site.
I have never had any issues regarding privacy there,but they do seem to keep changing the settings. In the main it is up to the user to ensure their account is 'locked down' as much as possible, and accept the risks. There is an app by BitDefender called Safego which claims to protect from 'scams, spam, malware and private data exposure'
http://apps.facebook.com/bd-safego/

I joined Facebook mostly because my sister, the computer programmer joined. She and her husband have owned a software company for many years and they would be the first to warn me off. I don't share anything really personal on my 'page', and have just a handful of 'friends', all of whom are family or longtime friends in real life. So far I haven't posted any of my photographs to FB... I mean why give the pirates another site to steal from?

So far, so good. I can't begin to think of what's waiting in the future, I mean, half of our e-mail is spam already... Everyone else has sold my email address, I'm sure FB will do the same soon. If I sound a little resigned, I am.

FaceBook is on the World Wide Web and I use it as if it were open to all of the public, not just my "friends".....as Mary said above, who knows what is in the future? :)

I observed 2 friends debating the good/evil of FB....fascinating to listen to their passionate attempts to get the other one to convert to their way of thinking~

I like the networking aspect...I just don't like all the stupid "apps"...