Data mining

[Shapley]

I have a Facebook account. Some of my friends online are younger kids. This was circulating around, and the kids were having fun filling it out. I found it troublesome:

I didn't come up with this.. and yes some of these things are weird, blame the creator of it. Who is not me.

1.YOUR REAL NAME:
2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(parents' middle names)
3.NASCAR NAME:(grandfathers' first names)
4.STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
5.DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal)
6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning
8.FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
9.ROCK STAR NAME:(current pets name, current street name)
10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
11.YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle)
12.YOUR IRAQI.. NAME:(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name)
13.YOUR GOTH NAME:(black, and the name of one of your pets)
14. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your favorite pet, favorite candy)

a lot of these things they are asking for, such as the street you grew up on, grandparents names, name of favourite pet, etc., are used as identifying questions by various online accounts to access your password, in case you forget it. Here, kids are posting that info for public consumption.

Eternal vigilence! Keep an eye on the things your kids are doing online. I posted a warning to my friends, but I wonder how many people (not just kids) have fallen for this type of trap...

[jamiebk]

This is even more dangerous considering that Facebook has changed its "Terms of Use" (TOU) to holding anything posted by anyone forever. It's been in the news and has caused quite a stir.

Facebook's Terms Of Use Draw Protest

Mark Zuckerberg clarifies for users that once they delete their accounts, friends will still retain their posts.


By K.C. Jones, InformationWeek
Feb. 17, 2009
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/sh ... =214303433

Facebook members own the information on the site and control who sees it, but when they terminate their accounts Facebook claims it retains the right to use the information.

That stipulation, contained in Facebook's updated user terms, has created confusion and drawn protest from users who believe that the social networking site could use information that they deem personal indefinitely and for any purposes it chooses.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg sought to allay those fears in a blog post Monday. He explained that the clarification served to notify users that once they delete their accounts, friends will still retain their posts.

"In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want," Zuckerberg said. "The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work. Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment."

Zuckerberg said that Facebook must obtain user permission before it can share a member's information with others as they request. That is done through the site's terms of use, which grant Facebook rights to use and share the information internally.

"One of the questions about our new terms of use is whether Facebook can use this information forever," he said. "When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created -- one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message."

Zuckerberg said Facebook updated its terms to make that more clear and because the company is working to protect users while making its terms and conditions more clear. He said that people's concern over the change highlights the complexity of users' privacy rights and the use of personal information.

For example, people want full ownership of their information and they want to be able to block access to it whenever they choose. People also want to be able to import contact information and photographs to other services.

"These two positions are at odds with each other," he explained. "There is no system today that enables me to share my email address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with."

[jamiebk]

OOPS! Scratch that. Here is an update from this AM:
#################################
Facebook backs down on policy changes

Social-networking site had faced tens of thousands of protests over switch
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 4:59 a.m. PT, Wed., Feb. 18, 2009

NEW YORK - Facebook backed down late Tuesday on policy changes that tens of thousands of users complained would grant the social-networking site the ability to control their information forever, even after they cancel their accounts.

“Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised,” Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote on The Facebook Blog.

Zuckerberg said the move would be temporary.

“Going forward, we've decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now,” he write in the updated blog.

Facebook announced updated terms of use on Feb. 4. Those changes largely went unnoticed until the popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com pointed out the changes Sunday.

That prompted a clarification from Zuckerberg, although the new terms remained in force until late Tuesday.

In originally defending the changes, Zuckerberg told users in a blog post Monday that "on Facebook, people own their information and control who they share it with."

When someone shares a photo, a message or a status update telling friends what they are up to at the moment, they first need to grant Facebook a license so the site can pass that information along to authorized friends, Zuckerberg said. Without the license, he said, Facebook wouldn't be able to help people share information.

The rapidly growing site, which boasts around 175 million users around the world, has had several run-ins with users over its short history.

In late 2007, for example, a tracking tool called "Beacon" caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their shopping habits and activities at other Web sites. After initially defending the practice, Facebook ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29239948/

[Shapley]

I can understand Facebook's initial stance, I just think they went about it the wrong way. In their ads, they use material from actual customer posts and pages, in accordance with the terms and conditions. Under the old terms, if a customer canceled their subscription, they could block Facebook from using the old data, even in existing ads. That would require Facebook to review and purge their ad database everytime a customer canceled, to keep it legal. The change merely allowed them to 'grandfather in' extant ad materials. But, as I said, it as a PR failure, since they didn't make clear their purpose.