Reports issued on Sunday detailed the latest in a series of privacy concerns that have plagued social networking giant Facebook, announcing that some popular applications have been sharing user data with advertisers in a way that violates Facebook’s privacy policies.
The report indicated that all of the top 10 most popular Facebook applications, including games such as FarmVille and Mafia Wars, were passing on user ID numbers to outside advertisers and tracking companies. Although Facebook has tried to downplay the report by saying that it “exaggerated the implications” of sharing user IDs, the findings are still unsettling.
One would think that after years of debate over its privacy policy, Facebook would be a bit more on top of things by now. When 500 million users trust a website with their information, the website should make a better effort to protect those users’ privacy. Obviously, users have to be cognizant of a website’s privacy policy and should take responsibility for protecting their own information. But when a site simply doesn’t realize that applications are directly violating its privacy policy, then there is a problem.
Furthermore, Facebook has always been criticized for lack of transparency regarding its privacy settings. Although it has made an effort in recent months to make its policy easier to understand, completely reforming its settings in May, clearly the problem still has not been addressed fully.
At the same time, this is the risk that Internet users face when they willingly put all of their personal information online for others to see. It is an unfortunate but inevitable consequence of living our lives on the Internet. Instead of blindly consenting when applications ask for permission to access their profile and information, users should make more of an effort to protect themselves from applications of which they don’t understand the effects.
If it has taken Facebook this long to figure out that users’ information was being used inappropriately, it gives us reason to wonder about what else is going on without our knowledge. Because Facebook has already attracted such a large and devoted user base, it is unlikely that many people will defect now because of these security concerns. But if Facebook wants to retain its credibility for the future, it needs to seriously examine how it deals with privacy concerns and protects the information of its users.
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