Senators demand tighter privacy controls on Facebook

Senators demand tighter privacy controls on FacebookApril 27, 2010

Four senators have written to Facebook criticizing recent changes to its data policies. [Photo]
They are demanding that key privacy settings be changed so that privacy is the default.The letter comes from senators Mark Begich, Michael Bennet, Al Franken and Charles Schumer. They tell Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg that they have three specific concerns about recent changes:1) The new Facebook Connections feature (effectively a rebranded version of the old “Become a fan” setting) now exposes some user profile data to public display.2) Advertisers are now allowed to store profile data from users forever, rather than a previous limit of 24 hours.3) A new “instant personalization” feature which allows users to integrate Facebook with other websites gives those sites access to a user’s friends list and those friends’ profiles. One example of that would be that a Facebook friend was listening to music on streaming site Pandora, they could be notified if they listened to a band which you had mentioned in your profile. The procedure for opting out of such data sharing appears to be particularly complex.The senators believe that in all three cases “providing opt-in mechanisms for information sharing instead of expecting users to go through long and complicated opt-out processes is a critical step towards maintaining clarity and transparency.”Facebook’s vice president Elliot Schrage is said to have replied to the senators saying that the company agrees more scrutiny over personal handling data is needed. But the Associated Press reports that he claimed the site’s aim is to give users more control.The senators’ letter follows Schumer writing to the Federal Trade Commission over the weekend requesting it take action to lay down guidelines about how social networking sites gather and share information about users.He says the FTC should be able to take action under its current powers, but noted that if that wasn’t the case, politicians might have to introduce new legislation.