Wednesday, May 26, 2010
You use Facebook?
Try to get out, if you can.
Here's Minister Conroy's extraordinary assessment at Senate estimates:
"Facebook has also shown a complete disregard for users’ privacy recently. Facebook,
I understand, was developed by Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg, who
after breaking up with his girlfriend developed a website of all the photos from the Harvard yearbook so that
he and his mates could rank the girls according to their looks — an auspicious start for Facebook. He was
encouraged to develop this further and Facebook, the social networking phenomenon, was born. Facebook has
been rolling out changes to its privacy laws over recent months and as one blogger recently put it:
Facebook has gone rogue. Facebook used to be a place to share photos and thoughts with friends and family, a useful
way to keep in touch. Then Facebook realised it owned the network and decided to turn your profile into your identity
online, figuring rightly that there is money and power in being the place where people define themselves.
These are all quotes from this blog.
In December last year Facebook reneged on its privacy promises and made much of your profile public by default,
including the city you live in, your name, your photo, the names of your friends and the causes you have signed on to.
Then it went further and linked all the things you said you liked to your public profile; your music preferences,
employment information, reading preference, schools—all made public.
Fourteen privacy groups have filed an unfair trade complaint against Facebook with the FTC. Facebook’s
founder, Mark Zuckerberg, says privacy is no longer a social norm. A leaked email from Mr Zuckerberg
recently referred to Facebook users — and I will have to censor this because we are in parliament — as dumb,
and then the next word begins with ‘f’, for giving him all their private information and not expecting him to
use it.
So, what would you prefer, Senator Wortley, a corporate giant who is answerable to no-one and motivated
solely by profit making the rules on the internet, or a democratically elected government with all the checks
and balances in place?"
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