Transcript Facebook settles with FTC over deception charges

The Internet is becoming
the town square
for the global village
of tomorrow.
Bill Gates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Internet is the
Viagra of big business.
Jack Welch
Do we…
accept all the friend requests, seek more followers,
and bombard them with more details
of our lives than anyone needs to know?
—Eleanor Mills, CNET News
Dennis Miller

Human beings are human beings.
They say what they want, don’t they?
They used to say it across the fence
while they were hanging wash.
Now they just say it on the Internet.
Mark Zuckerberg:

“Right now, with social networks and
other tools on the Internet, all of these
500 million people have a way to say
what they’re thinking and have
their voice be heard.”
The Federal Trade Commission has charged Facebook
with deceiving consumers with its privacy settings to get
people to share more personal information than they
originally agreed to, then allowing it to be made public.
—Associated Press, Nov. 29, 2011
Privacy Policy, as of April 2010:
When you connect with an application or
website it will have access to General Information
about you including you and your friends’ names,
profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any
content shared using the Everyone privacy setting...
The default privacy setting is set to “everyone.”
With Facebook’s new Timeline feature,
Facebook profits from giving advertisers
access to users’ personal information.
Traditional web advertising is now
disguised as your friends’ updates.
—www.betabeat.com
informal Google motto:
“Don’t be evil.”
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt
on user privacy:
“I actually think most people don’t want
Google to answer their questions.
They want Google to tell them
what they should be doing next.”
and:
“If you have something that
you don’t want anyone to know,
maybe you shouldn’t be
doing it in the first place.”
and:
“We don’t need you to type at all.
We know where you are.
We know where you’ve been.
We can more or less know
what you’re thinking about.”
Google’s new [lack of] privacy statement:
What you do in [what you thought was]
relative anonymity today will,
after March 1st,
be associated with your name, your face,
and your phone number.
—gizmodo.com
We are more comfortable with our privacy
being limited if it allows the content
we view to be more pertinent to our lives.
—Austin Zoot, Indiana Daily Student
The anonymity and freedom of
the internet give people an opportunity
to speak freely without fear of retribution.
—www.healthguidance.org
The argument over pseudonyms — known
as the “nym wars” — goes to the heart of
how the Internet might be organized in the future.
Activists have learned this year that social media sites
can be effective in mobilizing uprisings,
but using a real name on those sites
can lead authorities right to an activist’s door.
–The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2011
Just as traditional journalism fights
restrictions on freedom of speech and press,
Twitter finds itself in a global battle over
free speech on the Internet.
–Reuters
Twitter announced that it would begin restricting
Tweets in certain countries—a significant change
from just one year ago, when mass demonstrations
were coordinated through the social network.
–Reuters, January 26, 2012
Survey of teens, ages 12-17
—www.pewinternet.org/
Companies like Reputation.com have
begun charging hundreds of dollars to
keep users’ less flattering details from
the top of search engine results.
—www.digitaltrends.com
The Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)
and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are
designed to cut off access to websites
that promote pirated or counterfeit products.
The procedures outlined in both SOPA and
PIPA fail this fundamental constitutional test:
The Constitution requires a court to hold a
hearing to determine that the material in
question is unlawful before the material is
completely removed from circulation.
—Stanford Law Review
On January 18 websites around the world
“blacked out” in a coordinated protest
against the controversial proposed
US legislation.
—AFP Relax News
Following an internet demonstration which saw
more than 75,000 websites protesting –
a full vote on PIPA & SOPA was delayed
“until there is wider agreement on a solution.”
[Lamar Smith, sponsor of legislation]
—Digital Trends
The U.S. Supreme Court’s sweeping decision
requiring police to obtain search warrants to plant
GPS tracking devices on automobiles may broadly
enhance Americans’ electronic privacy rights.
—CNET News
A proposed digital privacy bill by Sen. Patrick Leahy
would update 1986’s Electronic Communication
Privacy Act to require the government to obtain
search warrants to access citizens’ personal data.
—Digital Trends
“The premise that an individual has
no reasonable expectation of privacy in
information voluntarily disclosed to third
parties is ill suited to the digital age.”
—Justice Sonia Sotomayor
July 8, 2011—After 168 years,
News of the World ceases publication
following revelations that the
British tabloid had hacked the phones
of hundreds of celebrities and politicians.
Whether or not you agree with ‘hack-tivists’
like Anonymous, they expose massive vulnerabilities
in areas which are extremely sensitive.
They’ve become the unofficial
security testers of the world.
—www.digitaljournal.com, Feb. 3, 2012
Online communication meets
the definition of social capital,
as it provides a network where people
can interact in specific forums designed
for specific interests, as well as allowing for
civic engagement in local communities.
—Schatzie Speaks blog, hubpages.com
What is most
important to you
regarding internet
privacy, freedom &
security?