This morning, the Guardian reported that Facebook has moved more than 1.5 billion users out of its global headquarters in Ireland to its main offices in California in order to put those users out of reach of Europe’s privacy laws. Additionally, these resources must include hiring more people of color across all levels of the company – an initiative that would address Silicon Valley’s failure to take real steps towards embracing diversity.
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“It shouldn’t take the pressure off Facebook because people can not be expected to be that aware of what they’re signing up for”, Bagnetto said. Read any of the top five stories on msn.com and PTSD (President Trump Stress Disorder) is front and center. Instead, they would tell Facebook their specific needs, and Facebook would target their audience for them. The same United Nations body has specifically urged web-based companies to make sure their practices don’t facilitate inappropriate government surveillance or otherwise harm human rights. The current policy states “We collect the content and other information you provide when you use our Services, including when you sign up for an account, create or share, and message or communicate with others”. The theory is since social media companies like Facebook already have and sell your personal data, why not sell it yourself and profit. In fact, a spokesperson for Facebook responded to news reports about its patent on determining socioeconomic data by asserting that it often seeks patents that it never implements.
But the ACLU argues that users don’t have full control over their information.
This data mining – which used the personal information of 87 million people without their consent – was used to develop techniques for the firm’s work on the Trump campaign. This means those actions should be limited to what is truly necessary and is proportionate to a legitimate goal. One can also explore Facebook’s Privacy Settings to further learn about the ways users are protected and the ways they are not.
The audit was conducted for the Federal Trade Commission, after the agency and Facebook reached a settlement over its privacy practices.
Representatives of Facebook, Google and Twitter have been invited to testify, as will Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican running for the U.S. Senate, who has a bill that would put in place consumer privacy protections for internet users. But the key agenda of the meet was protection of data of Indian social media users and blocking of its misuse in influencing India’s electoral system. The take-up rate for a premium service would be less in poorer countries, and Zuckerberg would have to fight the perception of a separate-but-equal service that offered one version for the elite and another for everyone else. Suddenly, “privacy” issues for citizens have piqued their interest. The company should establish these protections worldwide by the May GDPR deadline, or explain why it can’t and set an expeditious timeline.
The last thing needed, however, is for politicians to “fix” the problem with legislation. But they do embrace some useful ideas about user empowerment that members of Congress were right to raise during the hearing.
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Facebook has given users in the European Union and Canada the right to turn on facial recognition technology, which can be used to detect when others might attempt to use your image as their profile photo without your consent, for example.
