As we now know, Facebook and its users have different opinions on the appropriate levels of privacy for the site. Users want more, Facebook wants less. While Facebook already has their own bill of rights for users, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is proposing their own Bill of Rights for users.
Now, a little history lesson. Back in the good old days, when the union was new and the government was young, people created a Bill of Rights to protect certain universal individual liberties. This Bill of Rights has become the foundation of our society, and every day we fight to protect our ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, due process, equal protection, etc. The framers of the Constitution felt that unless these rights were specifically spelled out in a separate and binding document, they would never be properly protected. And they were important enough to stand apart on their own in what is arguably the most meaningful document that has ever been created in this country.
Presently we find ourselves amidst a similar situation with Facebook. Users have expressed that they don’t feel as though they and their data are being adequately protected. They feel as though they are at the mercy of Facebook, and they just have to roll with whatever privacy controls are thrown at or taken away from them, or take their profiles elsewhere. Of course, there is always the caveat that Facebook is a private site, and can run its business as it pleases as long is it does so legally. It is not a government and it does not owe its users the same consideration that our government owes to us. But some are calling for a Bill of Rights of sorts to protect users, their information and their interests.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has begun by proposing three basic principles that all social network users should demand. First they call for the right to informed decision making whereby users can “make informed choices about who sees their data and how it is used.” They also want users to be notified when a government or private party uses a legal process to obtain information about them. Second, they want the right to control “the use and disclosure of their own data,” such that users must opt in or opt out of any secondary data sharing. Last, users should have the right to delete their information completely should they decide to deactivate from the site. Others have proposed similar breakdowns of these principles, basically calling for user data control and transparency about what of their data is shared and with whom.
Facebook does have a set of “Facebook Principles” which states that people should own their own information, have the freedom to share it with whoever they want, and set privacy controls to protect their choices in this respect. Why does it seem like Facebook isn’t practicing what they preach?
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