Facebook Retroactively Makes More User Data Public 287
mjn writes "In yet another backtrack from their privacy policy, Facebook has decided to retroactively move more information into the public, indexable part of profiles. The new profile parts made public are: a list of things users have become 'fans' of (now renamed to 'likes'), their education and work histories, and what they list under 'interests.' Apparently there is neither any opt-out nor even notice to users, despite the fact that some of this information was entered by users at a time when Facebook's privacy policy explicitly promised that it wouldn't be part of the public profile."
This terms of use agreement is subject to change (Score:1, Informative)
at any time without notice. It is your responsibility to check the license page periodically for changes.
There is a notice in the fine print if you edit... (Score:5, Informative)
Uncheck any Page you don't want to link to. Linking to education and work Pages may also create additional Pages, such as for your major or job title. If you don't link to any Pages, these sections on your profile will be empty. By linking your profile to Pages, you will be making these connections public. [emphasis mine]
You are about to remove this information
If you don't link to any Pages, the following sections on your profile will be empty:
So your options are all or nothing.
Why (Score:5, Informative)
You still use Facebook? Call me a troll, but think. Are you being intelligent if you still use Facebook after all this?
After my last Slashdot comment [slashdot.org], I deleted my profile. One of the sub-comments explains how to delete it instead of just disabling it.
Re:Opt-in/out message (Score:2, Informative)
What did you expect ? (Score:3, Informative)
People need to understand once something hits the internet its out there, no privacy promise by a huge corporation (that probably owns the data once it hits its servers and gave it self the right to change policy whenever they want in the wall of text) is going to protect it.
The Cloud sound nice and all but the hype often forgets (intentionally ?) to make the dumb user aware of the consequences and dangers of putting something in a hard drive they cannot control
Re:419 Scammers? No, it's really employers. (Score:3, Informative)
This is what is wrong with society - it is not a partisan or even a US problem. It is an honor problem. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11706 [cato.org]
Maybe we just don't need all the governments we have around the world, we just need people to have honor and uphold justice.
Re:419 Scammers? No, it's really employers. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't worry (Score:4, Informative)
There is an option in the privacy settings to turn off your publicly indexable profile. You can still be on Facebook, share info with people you want to, and just disable the ability of search engines and data miners to pull information out of a publicly available profile.
That just stops your profile from showing up in search results. All of the publicly-available parts of your profile - name, location, pages, gender, friends list, etc - are still avaiable to every application that any friend of yours uses, and now also to approved third-party websites that they visit too. There's no way to turn this off.
Re:Opt-in/out message (Score:3, Informative)
I'm also Canadian but did not see an opt-in/out notice. I went to check my public profile and discovered that it was indeed showing my "likes" amongst other things whereas my previous privacy settings explicitly forbade that kind of info being available to non-friends. I've since turned off my public profile altogether and you now get a 404-type page instead. This might be a good compromise if you don't mind people not being able to add you as easily (something I definitely don't mind).
Re:Don't worry (Score:3, Informative)
How to deactivate or purge your Facebook (Score:3, Informative)
You literally have to be an Internet Olympic hero to delete or remove your Facebook account after these changes. But I found this story/guide, by Mathew Ingram very useful when I removed my facebook presence.
http://gigaom.com/2010/04/22/your-moms-guide-to-those-facebook-changes-and-how-to-block-them/
Even if you are not logged into facebook, due to instant personalization, many websites that partner with fb can track you.
Re:419 Scammers? No, it's really employers. (Score:3, Informative)
You put real information in there?
It's a network of real people.
Re:419 Scammers? No, it's really employers. (Score:3, Informative)
No, you missed the point (that better not become a meme). If "Elementary Elementary" is NOT used as an answer to the security question "Which elementary school you went to?", its irrelevant that someone finds out which elementary school you went to.
The point is you give fake random answers to the security questions, so if someone finds out the real answers, they still can't get past them.
Re:Don't worry (Score:3, Informative)
No, Facebook cannot at any time reveal whatever they want - there are such things as laws, when Facebook decided to start doing business outside the US they accepted they had to operate under foreign laws - last time they did something like this they got hit by the Danish data proectection agency, and trust me, once they got a sniff of this this will be removed (at least for Danes).
Re:Don't worry (Score:3, Informative)
Yes there is, and I just did it.