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Social Networks Privacy The Almighty Buck Your Rights Online

MySpace To Sell User Data 199

Posted by CmdrTaco from the what-you're-surprised dept.
OnlyJedi writes "Hot on the news of Netflix canceling its latest contest over privacy concerns, news has spread that MySpace is going in the opposite direction. Apparently, the one-time leading social network is now selling user data to third party collection firms. From the article, the data that InfoChimps has listed includes 'user playlists, mood updates, mobile updates, photos, vents, reviews, blog posts, names and zipcodes.' InfoChimps is a reseller that deals with individuals and groups, from academic researchers to marketers and industry analysts. So if you're worried about your data on MySpace being sold off to anybody with a few hundred dollars, now's the time to delete that little-used account."
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MySpace To Sell User Data More

MySpace To Sell User Data

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  • So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by arcite ( 661011 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:20AM (#31495170)
    Just hit the 'delete' button and your data is safe? Too late, they got you.

    • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Informative)

      by dunezone ( 899268 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:29AM (#31495326) Journal
      The only way I can think of removing your information is to edit your profile with random information that makes sense but is generic. Replace all critical information such as addresses or phone numbers with fake addresses. Remove all photos and just have a few generic stock photos. The idea is to make the account look legit but with no information that can be used against you.

      This will correct the issue of current viewable information. Next you need to lock down your profile with as much security as possible, disable messages, turn on approvals for anything, lock it down like Fort Knox so it stays static as long as possible.

      Now comes the part you have no control over. You need to let the account sit for months if not years. Over time they (Myspace or Facebook) will need to purge older backups and can only keep current relevant information. So now the older backups are over-written and being written into the system is your current BS profile, but this can take months to years to do and that depends on how much Myspace/Facebook or any social site is willing to retain.

      Whatever you do, don't just delete the account or use their automated deletion system cause that's not really doing the job you want. That most likely puts it into a special repository for recoveries in case you want to come back.

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:33AM (#31495390) Homepage Journal

        The only way I can think of removing your information is to edit your profile with random information that makes sense but is generic.

        How about adding some details about the people running MySpace in your profile?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by pixelpusher220 ( 529617 )
        Reasonable suggestions, unless they also are tracking changes to accounts. In that case, they keep all the values that have ever been used. For instance, "Hey user '1@m1337' has lived in Ohio, Florida and Tijuana". Time to check for drugs!

      • or you could not put real data in there to begin with?
        My only MS account was a troll...

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The only way I can think of removing your information is to edit your profile with random information that makes sense but is generic. Replace all critical information such as addresses or phone numbers with fake addresses. Remove all photos and just have a few generic stock photos. The idea is to make the account look legit but with no information that can be used against you. This will correct the issue of current viewable information. Next you need to lock down your profile with as much security as possible, disable messages, turn on approvals for anything, lock it down like Fort Knox so it stays static as long as possible. Now comes the part you have no control over. You need to let the account sit for months if not years. Over time they (Myspace or Facebook) will need to purge older backups and can only keep current relevant information. So now the older backups are over-written and being written into the system is your current BS profile, but this can take months to years to do and that depends on how much Myspace/Facebook or any social site is willing to retain. Whatever you do, don't just delete the account or use their automated deletion system cause that's not really doing the job you want. That most likely puts it into a special repository for recoveries in case you want to come back.

        The only way I can think of removing your information is to edit your profile with random information that makes sense but is generic. Replace all critical information such as addresses or phone numbers with fake addresses. Remove all photos and just have a few generic stock photos. The idea is to make the account look legit but with no information that can be used against you. This will correct the issue of current viewable information. Next you need to lock down your profile with as much security as possible, disable messages, turn on approvals for anything, lock it down like Fort Knox so it stays static as long as possible. Now comes the part you have no control over. You need to let the account sit for months if not years. Over time they (Myspace or Facebook) will need to purge older backups and can only keep current relevant information. So now the older backups are over-written and being written into the system is your current BS profile, but this can take months to years to do and that depends on how much Myspace/Facebook or any social site is willing to retain. Whatever you do, don't just delete the account or use their automated deletion system cause that's not really doing the job you want. That most likely puts it into a special repository for recoveries in case you want to come back.

        A good idea, but it may not be necessary to wait. Just change the user info and cancel the account. A company selling a list of user data, wont try to figure out which is the accurate information, they will just use the most recent. Based on some direct mail marketing experience years ago, a list a year old is expected to have incorrect addresses for approximately 10% to 20%.. Many companies wont buy a list older than 90 or 180 days.

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Informative)

        by B'Trey ( 111263 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:04AM (#31495922)

        There is nothing you can do to ensure that data you've already entered is gone. Even if you delete photos and change the info, there's no guarantee that the previous info is not stored. That being said, I deleted my account when I saw this earlier this morning on another site. When they asked me why I was deleting the account, I checked "Privacy concerns." In the comments section, I pasted a quote from the article noting what they were selling and followed it up with a single word: Bye. If enough people do this, Facebook will get the message that users are unhappy with this decision, even if deleting the account doesn't protect already-entered data.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by natehoy ( 1608657 )

          You mean MySpace, right? I mean, Facebook is just about as trustworthy as MySpace or a 5-year-old child at keeping your "secret" data "secret", but at least get your evil super-villain correct.

          Also, if you just delete the account, they have your most recent information available for sale. Be sure to alter the information and let the new information age a bit before deleting it.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by ircmaxell ( 1117387 )
          Well, unless I misunderstood their TOS, when you signed up, you granted MySPACE the right to do what it pleases with your data. By deleting your account, aren't you thereby revoking that right from MySPACE? So if you delete it today, and they sell it tomorrow, aren't they violating your rights (and hence are liable for the sale)... Or do I not understand this correctly?

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by operagost ( 62405 )
            The user agreement may have used the term "perpetual" in reference to the license on your information.
            • One thing of note. Their privacy policy has the following quote:

              If you ask MySpace to stop using your PII, MySpace will honor that request while retaining any record of your PII that is necessary to comply with applicable federal, state or local law.

              So the question remains, how do I ask them that? I've already sent them an email stating that affect, so is that all I need to do?

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by g0bshiTe ( 596213 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:14AM (#31496066)
        Of course if you did this in the first place as I did, you have little to be concerned with, and with a photo that is 10 years old, good luck using that to identify me especially seeing how when i registered i never used my name or any valid information other than a real email address and my city complete with incorrect zip code. I did the same 3 years ago when I signed up for Facebook. Once I started hear how Facebook handles this data, I am glad I chose to do it.

        Which begs another question which should probably be under Ask Slashdot. How many users here create accounts using real information, aside from sites like PayPal or where it would be required for your activities. I'm talking like email accounts, MySpace, Facebook, or even /. I'd be interested to know if I'm the only one using false information in 98% of my online endeavors.

        • I use my real name most of the time (except for throwaway accounts), because quite frankly I don't like to appear as "hiding" behind an online nickname, and names aren't exactly sensitive information. Usually the only time I'm asked my address is when I want to buy something; 99% of the other cases it's scammy/spammy/throwaway sites that I'm typing junk info into anyway. As for birth date, I tend to make that up, but not always. I'm quite a bit less paranoid than most people I know though; e.g. if you want my address (feel free to send me cool stuff :P), all you have to do is perform a WHOIS lookup on my domain.

          But really, it all boils down to not using public websites for private stuff. The only website that I use that can be considered to be a social networking site is Twitter, and I use it to engage in public conversation anyway. If I want to talk in private, I use e-mail or IRC, preferably on private servers. If I put something on-line, chances are I probably want you to be able to find it.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by chgros ( 690878 )

            names aren't exactly sensitive information
            Names are actually the most sensitive information, since that's the easiest way to identify you. It's the association of the name with whatever you used it for that's valuable, not the name in itself.

        • I use my real name whenever what I'm posting is something I'd want future employers, parents, the police, etc tying to me. I don't when that information could be used to market to me.

          For instance, I'd want to get credit for solving a really confusing technical problem for someone on a Saturday afternoon. Or contributing useful work to an open-source project. That way, when someone who I'm trying to impress Googles me, they find out all sorts of nifty stuff that I've done. (Actually, in my case, I have an ad

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Sockatume ( 732728 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:20AM (#31496154)

        Better yet, poison the well. Change your account data to be complete garbage. It's going to skew their demographics and reduce the value of the data.

        • Better yet, poison the well. Change your account data to be complete garbage. It's going to skew their demographics and reduce the value of the data.

          Sigh... No. It's rather difficult to spoil data in a way the algorithms cannot see. Garbage data is just noise, and easy to filter. How to handle corrupted or extraneous data points is a Data Mining 101 sort of topic. To "skew the demographics" (whatever that means -- you need to know what data mining techniques are used) would require concerted manipulation

      • Releasing personally identifiable information (names or contact info for example) on minors is probably legally prohibited. They can probably only release aggregate non-identifiable information. Also minors can not legally enter into a contract (in the US) so terms of use agreements that allow the release of personally identifiable information may not be valid. Perhaps an EFF lawyer can send a letter.

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Hurricane78 ( 562437 ) <deleted&slashdot,org> on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:25AM (#31496248)

        No. Removing your profile is really easy. Just edit it into a troll profile. Replace all images with the pain series, 50 hitlers / swastikas, etc. Edit all texts to the most offensive ones possible. And don’t forget to put a “song” “owned” by the biggest douche out there on your site. Something by Warner Music or the like.

        Will get you deleted in less than an hour. Guaranteed. ^^

        But don’t forget to “unfriend” all your friends before you do so! ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bl8n8r ( 649187 )

          > Will get you deleted in less than an hour. Guaranteed. ^^

          Probably get you a visit by the FBI, RIAA, and Aryan Nations in less than an hour also.

          • As someone not living in the USA’s power zone, I seriously doubt that.
            And the Aryan Nations can kiss my ass. Last time I saw a Nazi dude, he got his ass kicked by 1. a lot of foreigners and 2. 3000 cops in swat uniforms surrounding the building (he had a rocket launcher with him). And this land here invented the Nazis. We know how to deal with them. ;)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bmo ( 77928 )

          "No. Removing your profile is really easy. Just edit it into a troll profile. Replace all images with the pain series, 50 hitlers / swastikas, etc. Edit all texts to the most offensive ones possible. "

          This does not work with Ebay.

          --
          BMO

      • Re:So you think its really that easy? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by ZeroExistenZ ( 721849 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:38AM (#31496422)
        There are automated services for this: suicidemachine.org [suicidemachine.org]
      • ALL of my personal info on Facebook is incorrect. What kind of fool would publish their birth date, full name and address?

      • Almost. Backups and versions don't get deleted any more, they just get added to sentences like:

        Casandra is in use at Rackspace, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Cisco, Mahalo, Ooyala, and more companies that have large, active data sets. The largest production cluster has over 100 TB of data in over 150 machines.

        Historical data will most likely be useful to someone someday. Also, I have a collection of a large percentage of all AIM profiles from the early 2000s. Will that be useful some day? Probably not... probabl

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Yvanhoe ( 564877 )
      Am I the only one to wonder how companies monetize that ? Let's suppose I'm an average teenager with no concept of privacy. Myspace has my email address, my physical address, the place where I study, the music I like, the girls I pretended to bang, my political opinions, my favorite beer, etc... Then what ? They send me spam ? Who doesn't have a filter nowadays ? They send me physical spam ? How do they monetize that ?

      I'm smelling fishy business plans here.
      • You fail to realize that you already get lots of spam, and junk mail. There is obviously a good business model somewhere in there.

  • How Stupid do you have to be (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    To let Rupert Murdoch own your personal information . . . geez!

  • "...the one-time leading social network is now selling user data to third party collection firms."

    The term "third-party collection firm" generally leads one to think of a debt collector. There is no mention in the article of selling the data to such companies.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:22AM (#31495212)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Since it's owned by News Corporation, it'd be fair to say that it draws from the Murdoch family's deep well of moral squalor. So selling user data to the highest bidder, in addition to attacking Murdoch's ideological enemies [wikipedia.org], is being just true to form for these people.

      I can't say I'm surprised.

      And for reference you provide a hearsay account posted to a Wikipedia article, wherein someone accuses MySpace of a behavior with nothing to back it up. Clicking the source link for the story, we find that it's no longer valid. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I am saying that better sources might be in order...

  • Deleting does no good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jessta ( 666101 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:24AM (#31495246) Homepage

    I don't think deleting your Myspace account will do anything. They already have your data and you already agreed to allow them to redistribute it, just because you delete your account doesn't mean they have to delete your data. Facebook has the same agreement and will get to selling your data to the highest bidder sooner or later.

    It's amazing that people will trade the labours of their mind for mere web hosting.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      However; deleting your account will keep them from gathering any further data. Be sure to explain, in graphic detail in their "reason why" box why you are deleting your account.

      If their account #s drop by a third, they should get the message, whether we already "Agreed" to let them sell this info or not.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Chees0rz ( 1194661 )

      It's amazing that people will trade the labours of their mind for mere web hosting.

      It's amazing people consider facebook and myspace as "mere web hosting;" social networks are about connectedness. I am not defending them, but you're trivializing these communities and showing your ignorance.

      • Re:Deleting does no good (Score:5, Insightful)

        by idontgno ( 624372 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:57AM (#31495754) Journal

        Social networks are about pseudo-connectedness. Yes, they facilitate (i.e., make easier) real existing connections of actual social value, but they also enable (i.e., make possible) false connections with no actual underlying social significance. Witness Facebookers who have literally 4-5 digit numbers of "friends", or who "friend" commercial and marketing entities, or who have dozens of friends they've never met IRL and never will.

        Let's face it, RL is all that actually matters.

        That said, it's almost impossible to trivialize those "communities" beyond their inherent triviality. Furthermore, baseless and ad-hominem accusations of ignorance is not merely defense, but fanboi-level defense, and is probably one of the few things which can make the shallow inanity of these social networks glaringly obvious.

        Seriously... if you want connectedness and socialization, get out of Mom's basement. Or write a letter. You know, pen on paper? Or get together with real human beings.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Did you really just accuse him of ad hominem attacks and then tell him to get out of his mom's basement?

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by FlyingBishop ( 1293238 )

          Let's face it, RL is all that actually matters.

          Facebook is RL. I only have friends on Facebook that I want to talk to. Like any tool, you misuse it and it loses its efficacy.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by eln ( 21727 )
          You forgot to tell him to get off your lawn.

          Face it, nobody writes pen and paper letters to anybody anymore, except maybe their great grandparents who can't use a computer and don't care to learn because they'll be dead soon anyway. Online connections are, in many cases, just as important as RL connections. I've gotten job offers from connections made online, in some cases people that I never actually met IRL. Hell, I met my wife online.

          To say that online-only connections are meaningless is outdate

        • When I was a kid I had a pen-pal who I've never met face to face. Was it meaningless and useless too? It's pen and paper!

        • Only if you seek pseudo-connections.

          Want to go rock climbing? Oh wait, we organize those trips via Twitter...

          How about grabbing a burger before hitting the gym? Oh wait, those invites are texted too...

          Why didn't you show up for the movie this past weekend?

          Want to ... ad nauseam? Oh wait, you never read my invite because you ignored my letter to you. I don't know why, it was brief and sent right to your RSS/email/computer/phone/however you read Twitter/equivalents--you didn't even have to wait for the ma

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Blue Stone ( 582566 )

      >They already have your data and you already agreed to allow them to redistribute it, just because you delete your account doesn't mean they have to delete your data.

      Well, the cancellation page says:

      "WARNING: Cancelling your MySpace account will permanently remove all of your profile information from MySpace, including your photos, comments, blog entries, videos, and your personal network of friends. This information cannot be restored. You may re-register your current email address after cancelling, but

      • Re:Deleting does no good (Score:4, Insightful)

        by mpe ( 36238 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:51AM (#31495682)
        Well, the cancellation page says:
        "WARNING: Cancelling your MySpace account will permanently remove all of your profile information from MySpace, including your photos, comments, blog entries, videos, and your personal network of friends. This information cannot be restored. You may re-register your current email address after cancelling, but you will need to rebuild your personal network from scratch. "
        Which seems to suggest that they will delete your data - assuming you're prepared to believe anything spewing from the many fetid mouths of the Murdochian Empire.

        It only says that you can't get it back (in the original form) it says nothing about what the company may still be able to do with it. Even if they were actually telling lies what's likely to happen to them?

    • I thought I saw somewhere there was a site you could use to trash your data and close the account, or something to that effect. I can't remember where it was posted. I thought here. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by D Ninja ( 825055 )

      It's amazing that people will trade the labours of their mind for mere web hosting.

      I'm looking at my friend's current status updates on Facebook. If this is the labors of the mind, I'm now really, really depressed...

    • Facebook has the same agreement and will get to selling your data to the highest bidder sooner or later.

      Which is why I do not have any real information about myself on ANY of these sorts of sites.

    • Deleting your account deprives them of further advertising revenue and sends a signal to the market that selling our data can worsen a company's lagging business into a death spiral.

      The more account closings there are after this selloff, the more Myspace will smell like a dirty dog.

  • What's in the data? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mea37 ( 1201159 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:28AM (#31495306)

    Yes, I see that it includes playlists and crap like that.

    So what's the level of detail? Can I see an individual user, or just summaries at some predetermined granularity? If I can see individual users, can I see their name? If I buy a location-based dataset, can I see the exact GPS coordinates of a data point, or just ZIP code clusters, or what?

    TFS is definitely worded to spread fear. As much as I dislike companies taking liberties with data they've collected - especially with no accountable opt-out for people who've already handed their data over with no expectation of this sort of behavior - I'd still like to know more about what's actually gonig on before jumping on the FUD bandwagon.

    Oh, and seriously... if they are up to no good, do you really think deleting your account is going to make a difference? We're talking about the Internet; once you put something in, you can't take it back out.

    • Oh, and seriously... if they are up to no good, do you really think deleting your account is going to make a difference? We're talking about the Internet; once you put something in, you can't take it back out.

      Up to no good? just because somebody doesn't want to have loads of his personal information sold to the highest bidder, you assume he is "up to no good"?

      Ok, I get it, this has to be a troll... and I just bit..

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by mea37 ( 1201159 )

        No, you just need to work on reading comprehension. Here's a quick grammar lesson: In the sentence you quoted, I refered to the user multiple times in the 2nd person ("you", "your"). It should be clear to anyone literate that a 3rd-person pronoun ("they") is not referring to the same person as a 2nd-person pronoun in the same sentence.

        "They" in "if they are up to no good" means MySpace, asshat.

  • ... that this hadn't been done sooner. Murdoch no doubt wants some return on his investment, especially since traffic seems to be dropping [alexa.com].
  • *goes to delete whatever is left in my myspace account*

  • MySpace? Who cares? You should be concerned about. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by i_want_you_to_throw_ ( 559379 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:29AM (#31495332) Journal
    Facebook. Obviously all that matters in any of these enterprises is that the owners make money. Facebook is hard charging and building pretty solid for the inevitable day, in the very near future is going to come when..
    1. Facebook is bought by someone with DEEP pockets
    2. The said purchasers looks to make money from all that data that has been amassed.
    MySpace is Sunday School by comparison.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google won't always be owned by the original founders either...

    • Actually Google has far more information about individuals. The common perception that Google is a "search" company is mistaken. In truth they are a "targeted advertising" company. Search, GMail, Android, etc are ways to collect information on you and ways to deliver targeted ads. Google also delivers targeted ads to participating 3rd party web sites. Currently they do not sell profile information but if you want to list companies that are hypothetically in a position to do so in the future they certai

    • I think Facebook is going to go another route. By maintaining control of the data itself, Facebook is essentially creating a monopoly of the best targeted advertising data ever. Their policies are such that they can broker this data and sell it to the highest bidder. Or display ads to the highest bidder like they do right now. They make a good amount of money straight off of the advertisement bids and I'm sure they have much bigger schemes for reselling the data again. The more they keep their own shtick to

  • I Still Use It... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TheNinjaroach ( 878876 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @10:38AM (#31495472)
    I know that Myspace gets a lot of crap for their often ugly and tasteless profile pages, but I really love being able to customize my own HTML and CSS on my profile. It's funny to me that the often pro-choice Slashdot crowd sees these features as a bad thing. Sure, most people choose to use awful profile templates but personally I enjoy having the choice to add some clean and simple decorations. Facebook doesn't offer that choice, nor do they offer the choice to opt-out of a few terrible paragraphs in their ToS, which is why I left two years ago.

    I will have to re-read the new Myspace ToS before I decide whether or not to cancel my account, but if they go the way of Facebook's "We can re-license your personal photographs to whomever we want" terms then I will certainly be leaving Myspace as well. Where will I go? Who knows, perhaps it's time for me to clean the dust off of my personal domain.

    • It's funny to me that the often pro-choice Slashdot crowd sees these features as a bad thing.

      <blink> was a choice. 'Nuff sed.

  • Admittedly, depending on who does the liquidation, they may mark things up and then place a 50% tag on the mark-up . . . but, we'll see.

  • What do you expect from a company that gets a lot of its funding from Saudi Arabia [fastcompany.com]? Murdoch is also investing in Saudi companies owned by the same person [marketwatch.com].

    If partnering up with one of the most oppressive regimes on the planet is all in a days work, how does your personal information on MySpace rate any concern?

    Funny it never dawns on a certain segment of our population that one of our major cable news sources is heavily influenced by the Saudis. That would be particularly noticeable, on topics related

  • "So if you're worried about your data on MySpace being sold off to anybody with a few hundred dollars, now's the time to hop into the time machine and stop yourself in the past from ever opening that little-used account."

    Antisocial non-networking me and other curmudgeons will try very hard to not gloat.

  • Scoundrels.

    MySpace account now cancelled. I first edited my privacy settings to be the most restrictive possible, then closed the account. This was the reason I gave:

    "Cancelling due to MySpace selling user info to companies that may use it for marketing. Please ensure that none of my info, either current or historical, is supplied under any circumstances to any third-party individual, group or other entity either commercial or non-commercial. Thank you."

  • Create (or use your own if it doesn't contain information you care) and start to mess up with any kind of information you think they will gather.
    Create music compilations with no sense, change your humor randomly, become friend of people with nothing in common and so on.
    Be creative!

  • Now I feel like creating a MySpace account just so I can create a single review entitled "This is how I tip my hat to total suckers who pay actual money for data plainly available for free on my personal website".

    / Seriously, what kind of loser has a MySpace account? I moved past that kind of thing after tinkering briefly with GeoCities :-P

    • I have kids, and they use the social sites (really, how are you going to stop a 15- or 16-year-old from doing this). I added an account for me and asked them to friend me. Sure, it's possible they have other accounts they share with their friends, but they use the "main" accounts so frequently that it's more likely that so long as I don't blow up over small stuff they forget I'm friended.

      When I was a kid, we had BBS's. This is a whole 'nother level of danger. Better to be aware than uninformed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rwa2 ( 4391 ) *

        Hmm, my plan had always been to be a bit sneakier and set up the transparent proxy on the router and maybe VNC on their computers. But I'm still just procrastinating until they get a bit older... for the moment they only play Spore on the PC in the family room. I'll try to be a bit more proactive and "help" them set up their major social network accounts for them before they get there on their own. But it's a bit too early to tell which ones will be popular in another few years' time.

        But yeah, I remember

  • It is the death sigh... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by odin84gk ( 1162545 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:01AM (#31495862)

    Circuit City did the same thing when it went bankrupt. It sold all of its user data to other companies. This is just another sign that MySpace is dying.
    (I went to Microcenter (AMAZING STORE! Better than Newegg!) and bought something. They already had my information and informed me that they bought it from Circuit City. I don't really mind, but it was still strange.)

  • Never put your real name or any other real data into such services. I've been doing this for 15 years, and it's really hard to find me on people search sites.

    A handy tip - mix and match real and fake data if you must use your real name. A real phone number and address from 15 years ago is quite handy. :)

    I live close to a UPS store, where I rent a box. ALL my mail goes there. The only mail I get at home is the bulk coupon junk addressed to 'resident'.

  • Whew! (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheVelvetFlamebait ( 986083 ) on Tuesday March 16, 2010 @11:07AM (#31495964) Journal

    It's times like this I'm glad I'm with Facebook!

  • Why panic now? What's been stopping marketing/statistic entities from scraping and aggregating that data all along, from many sites? Perhaps there are agreements they have to sign to access the information, but how can anyone find out that's what they're doing if all they do is sell the aggregate data?
  • They're just packaging up the info already available to the API - in other words, nefarious villians already have your data.

  • 1:Run online social site
    2:Need to increase income
    3:?????
    4:Profit!

    ****
    We just figured out what #3 is - sell user data to data mining company(read: foreign botnet, which is where it eventually does end up).

    Unfortunately this seems to work for almost anything online. Expect targeted spam to increase tenfold in your email accounts due to this move by them. Well, that is, if you ever signed up for MySpace. Expect Facebook to follow in a few months or years.

  • Okay, so they've sold your info. So deleting has no practical benefit as far as your existing data is concerned.

    What is DOES do is send a message to the less terrible networks (Facebook, Twitter, LastFM, Google) that we, the users, take privacy seriously.

    If we can make enough noise, get enough accounts deleted, then these companies will be less likely to flog our info to the highest bidder.

  • Stupid people gave their personal information to some ASP who promised, in writing, to do "whatever they fucking felt like doing" with that information. Now said stupid people are shocked.

    Move along, now. Move along.

  • After all, it *is* my information that they're selling - correct? Why do we allow companies to profit from our information? I should be paid a royalty for my information regardless of how they acquired it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AVee ( 557523 )
      Your cut is the free hosting. A bad deal perhaps, but that has been the deal from the very beginning.

  • Is that legal, they must of promised user some sort of data privacy when they created their account?

  • Replace your profile text with the lyrics of a song you wrote, with pictures of a painting you drew and issue a Takedown notice to Myspace on your behalf. Bingo!

  • I agree that deleting your account may not be the best course of action if protecting your personal data is the ultimate goal. However, if MySpace does see a spike in deletes as a result of this announcement they may figure out that selling out may cost them equity they don't want to lose.

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