1. Some people don't realize what information Facebook is collecting, and some of those people would object if they did know.
2. Some people don't realize the way Facebook is using the information they collect, and some of those people would object if they did know.
Should it disturb us that those statements are true for millions of people? Or do we not care?
It will be interesting if we get to where Facebook is required to send a pamphlet to your house explaining how they use the information they collect about you, who they sell it to, etc. Log on to freesocialnetworkreport.com to see what information the Big 3 social networks have stored about you! See your social network score, etc.
On a different note, I do hope they harvest all the numbers for pizza places I have stored on my phone and find a way to help me get cheaper pizza.
> It will be interesting if we get to where Facebook is required to send a pamphlet to your house explaining how they use the information they collect about you, who they sell it to, etc.
Actually, they are, in the EU.
Well not literally with a pamphlet, of course, they are required to send you a CD with this data on request.
Except that they're (illegally) refusing to provide most of that data under the guise of "intellectual property" (whose? not theirs, under any legal definition of IP I'm aware of) and "trade secrets" (which I'm sure won't hold up).
They just provide the profile and your comments and messages and whatnot kinds of data that are all already visible in some sense or other, on Facebook.
They do not provide the invisible data, the things they collect behind the scenes, such as what data they collect from your phonebook, what data is available about you being tagged in photos, things like that, all the data you know Facebook is collecting (due to deduction from friend suggestions, or just because it's there), but never really get to see because it's either a) buried behind some algorithms (friend suggestions) or b) just stored and not really used for anything.
These two kinds of data are EXACTLY what this EU Privacy law is intended for. The right for EU citizens to know what data about them is being stored especially when it is not immediately obvious that this data is being collected, stored or used in some manner.
These two kinds of data are also EXACTLY what Facebook is withholding from EU citizens legal requests because of "trade secrets". It won't hold up. I really hope it won't.
Their reasoning for why something is a "trade secret" is the same reason why a law exists that requires them to provide that data: because the data is not used in the open and otherwise EU citizens would not be able to know this data is being collected and stored about them.
Remember, the privacy laws protect the fact already that certain data is just stored, not even whether it is used or not.
I bet there's many kinds of data FB is simply storing about its users that it doesn't really use yet, data they should have provided on formal request but declined to do so because of "trade secrets".
Should it disturb us that those statements are true for millions of people? Or do we not care?
It will be interesting if we get to where Facebook is required to send a pamphlet to your house explaining how they use the information they collect about you, who they sell it to, etc. Log on to freesocialnetworkreport.com to see what information the Big 3 social networks have stored about you! See your social network score, etc.
On a different note, I do hope they harvest all the numbers for pizza places I have stored on my phone and find a way to help me get cheaper pizza.