I think you’re missing that, either way, you’re probably going to be trusting a Murdoch company. ;)

The fact they collect private information is the service they provide (and which they are now trying to monetize in many different ways). What I do, say, like, or attend should be considered private until I say it isn’t.

There are also varying degree’s of private. Just because I, or someone else, would want to create a profile to share information, it certainly does not mean that anyone (or any company) should be able to do anything they want with that data.

We should have complete control of that data. If I only want to share it with my mother, then I should be capable of doing that. That certainly is the “promise” when you view “privacy controls”. As is, I am sharing it with everyone regardless of my preferences. There simply is no true control.

As for government control, is there any other entity that is capable of making companies do the right thing?

This is a serious issue and deserves more scrutiny. If government controls are necessary, so be it. I agree it would be nice if it were not.

Now, one way to get past the government need for intervention would be for Facebook and others to simply say *nothing* is private. They should make it absolutely clear that when you sign up and create an account it will be used to monetize your data and possibly be used for purposes beyond your control. They should even warn your data could be used for nefarious purpose.

Somehow, I don’t think they would have too many subscribers if they don’t at least make you think you have some privacy.

Giles, Senior Editor, TrustWorks

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27233634858&ref=ts

(MILLIONS AGAINST FACEBOOK’s PRIVACY POLICIES AND LAYOUT REDESIGN)

Some countries already have quite strong privacy-protection laws, and in those, companies like Facebook and Google would regularly be in breach of those local laws. Not sure how the jurisdictions work out – whether it’s the location of the company’s head office, or perhaps their datacenters. If the latter, it becomes even more complicated, given they have such centers scattered across several countries…

With Facebook and the like we see a massive shift from the decentralized web and net of the olden days to a few and perhaps even one (at least per regions up to whole continents) privately-owned services.

This can very well mean that it’ll become impossible to take part in everyday life w/out divulging anything Facebook feels people should divulge.

“Don’t use Facebool then,” you say? Well, yes, I don’t. But I want my niece to have the option to reasonably participate to public live w/out having to conform to one company’s rule.

“My data may only be used by applications, advertisers, and Partner websites when I provide permission”

Read more at http://www.philmichaelson.com/founding-decisions/how-your-facebook-friends-are-sharing-your-data/

Phil

Out of context, this sounds very bad. Don’t post it to facebook!

Is there any part of your life you don’t want government control of? I mean, the simple answer is to just keep your private information private.

FWIW, Facebook’s “interests” thing is just about as borked as Amazon’s guess-what-you-want stuff. It somehow thought I was a fan of “The Passion Of The Christ.” Let’s see… never seen it, don’t want to see it, hate Mel Gibson, not Christian, not interested in watching torture porn…

I tend to guard my privacy, and the whole premise of Facebook gave me the vague feeling of exposing myself more than I care to – proper setup and discretion with info notwistanding.

To be honest, though, despite encouragement from friends and relatives, I just never got around to it.

And now, I never will. This is one of the few times that procrastination actually worked in my favour. :)

The options are either trust the government, or trust a Murdoch company. I’ll go with the government.