You Gotta Fight, For Your Right, of Priiiiiiiiiivacy

I woke up this morning and checked my Facebook news feed (as usual). Today however, I noticed something that concerned me. A friend of mine had posted a warning on her status about Facebook making use of my pictures and other various actions to create advertisements that my friends see.

I don't know about you, but any arrangement that uses my private information and then requires me to opt-out if I don't want them to is bogus in my mind. First year Contracts I students learn that silence is almost NEVER acquiescence. I'm not really impressed by Facebook's Terms of Use/Service, which suggest that we (the users) are on notice of this practice as it's pretty unclear. Now to be fair, I haven't seen any ads with my friends pictures in them (yet).

The whole reeks of rampant capitalism and an invasion of privacy. Granted, there has to be first be an expectation of privacy and this is the internet. But in my irate defense, I have my personal profile set fairly private. Literally, when people want to friend me, they generally have to e-mail me or ask me in person because I don't show up in search results, I untag myself from a lot of pictures and I generally just don't make it easy for people to find me. This little option seems to not care, which irritates me. As I said before, silence is not acceptance, particularly in a case where a person is going to making money (selling ad space) by using your information.

I did follow my friend's instructions on how to stop Facebook from using this information. I have reposted below:

"Facebook has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures without your permission. Click on SETTINGS next to where you see the LOGOUT link. Select PRIVACY. Select NEWS FEEDS AND WALL. Select the tab that reads FACEBOOK ADS. There is a drop-down box, select NO ONE. Then hit SAVE."

It should ultimately look like this when you are done.



When will Facebook learn to stop trying to get so damn creepy?


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