Is Facebook deserving of gov't intervention? ~ By Phil Elmore

In this column, Phil asks, “Who is responsible for your online privacy?” That is an important question. Whether it is Facebook, or any other social networking site, what you include in your content that is open and public is pretty much up to the user. But what Phil mentions here is that there are people that want the government to regulate the online social networks and other sites on the web, so that the consumer is protected. And of course, as Phil points out, it is unnecessary for the government to get involved. It is up to the users to be vigilant.

Who, then, is truly responsible for your privacy online? A company that fails to fully disclose how it will use your personal information is not dealing with you fairly or honestly; your assumption of risk does not include deception of that type. Likewise, if a company tries to trick you by making it difficult for you to opt-out of programs that compromise your privacy, it is less than reputable. You and you alone, however, are ultimately responsible for your privacy. If you post personal data online, you must take the time and effort to determine how that information will be used, if at all – and you must remain ever vigilant to changes in the policies of those sites you do frequent.

If you use necessary prudence, taking responsibility for your consumer data privacy should not feel onerous. To use the Internet is not a license to turn off your brain. Buyer beware ... and user be warned.

By Phil Elmore

Posted: May 06, 2010 ~ 1:00 am Eastern

© 2010

Who is responsible for your online privacy? Is it the social networking sites you use? Is it your government?

As reported in CNET, the "tracking and targeting of consumers online" has, according to a coalition of consumer privacy groups, become "alarming" – so much so that these same groups are now agitating for government intervention and control.

Several busybody senators are already pushing to do just that. New York's Sen. Chuck Schumer, who never met a government regulation he could not embrace, recently asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into the privacy policies of the popular social networking site Facebook. Schumer and several other senators are reacting to public outcry over recent changes to Facebook's seemingly fluid user agreement – an outcry that for some reason includes the far-left activist group MoveOn.org, among others.

Facebook defended its "instant personalization pilot program" (the default setting for which is "on" – users must find it among their account settings to turn it "off") by saying that it "is an evolution of an idea Facebook has focused on since day one – to give people an easy way to share with their friends." This prompts one to wonder how sharing data with third-party websites that wish to sell you goods and services has anything to do with your "friends." Facebook's official statement continued, "We hope that instead of quickly dismissing sites being more personalized, that people take the time to try out new experiences ... [such as what] their friends have to say about restaurants and sharing favorite artists and albums." There is, of course, an assumption of risk you, as the user, must accept whenever you sign up for a site on which you post information about yourself. Facebook's executives think you'll get used to the idea in time.

This isn't the first time Facebook has come under fire for sharing with third parties information that users post to it. In late 2007, faced "with its second mass protest by members in its [then] short life span, Facebook, the enormously popular social networking website, [pulled back] some aspects of a controversial new advertising program." Among the aspects of the program rejected by users at the time was the sharing with people on users' "friend lists" of information regarding what those users were purchasing on certain third-party websites.

Even as you read this, a massive new Internet privacy bill proposed this week could potentially turn your Internet experience into a bureaucratic maze of legal indemnification agreements, sign-ups, sign-outs and releases. "The draft bill's chief proponent – Rick Boucher, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet – said it's designed to strike a middle ground between privacy protection and the need for online companies to benefit from interactive and targeted advertising." The bill "would require companies to get a user's explicit approval ... before [those companies] 'knowingly collect' information about a person's medical history, financial records, Social Security Number, sexual orientation or precise geographic location. … [T]he bill appears to codify what is accepted practice by reputable online companies."

No one should be surprised that the gears of government are grinding inexorably toward such popular websites. The FTC was turning its baleful collective eye on "Consumer Data Privacy" even before Schumer and Boucher got into the act.

READ FULL STORY at WorldNetDaily.com

Be sure to check out
johnny2k's Tea Party Gear!

Profits derived from your purchases
will help me to attend tea party rallies!