Angry Facebook Users Rip ‘Opt-Out’ Privacy for 3rd-Party Sites
Facebook users are condemning plans by the social media giant to share personal information with third-party websites as part of a planned venture.
Many of the more than 1,000 comments posted on Facebook’s blog page blast new privacy revisions and clarifications that apparently would only permit users to opt-out of sharing personal information with these sites.
“Dear FB you are travelling down a dangerous road – you are jeopardizing our privacy and data security. I think this smells rotten,” read one comment.
“I fear that the constitution is being scrolled and sold on the sidebar of a Facebook page,” read another.
Facebook calls its disputed default policy the “Everyone” setting, which it says is designed to enable users to share content “as broadly as possible.”
That default setting is not new, but it appears that Facebook will apply it toward new third-party site sharing.
In the privacy revisions provided, Facebook states that its agreements with third-party sites will include “your ability to opt out of the experience being offered.”
On Friday, Michael Richter, deputy general counsel for Facebook, explained in a lengthy blog post about “working with some partner websites that we pre-approve to offer a more personalized experience at the moment you visit the site.”
“In such instances, we would only introduce this feature with a small, select group of partners and we would also offer new controls,” Richter said.
Although it is not clear what specific privacy controls would apply to these new partnerships, Richter emphasizes the “Everyone” setting.
“To enable this distribution, we allow others to see, access, display, export, distribute and redistribute content set to ‘Everyone’ and we’ve tried to make this even clearer,” Richter said.
Here is a sampling of other comments.
“By the time we choose to opt out, our information has already been given to third parties without our information.”
“Back when I joined Facebook, the fundamental premise of the site was connecting to people you knew, and building your own private community of friends. That’s what I bought into. Not this greedy, trying to twist every angle into marketing our information for gain.”
“I know that this will provide more revenue for FB but have you considered the revenue you will lose when millions of users choose to opt-out of FB altogether?”
“FB never learns from their past mistakes. I’ve been a member since 2006 and I will, without a doubt, be leaving if and when this takes affect.”