Web video attacks Facebook privacy policies
An online video is circulating around the web accusing Facebook of selling user information.
The name Vishal Argawala appears at the end of the video which quotes the privacy policies of Facebook and claims the company is mining user data.
Facebook privacy engineer Nico Vera addressed the video in her blog: “A little internet video that made the rounds in the US in the last few months is now circulating in Canada. Just so everyone knows, Facebook is not selling any of your information. It never has and never will. Period.”
Recently, Facebook opened up their development platform to allow outsiders to create additional applications for the site sparking more debate on the topic.
Independent IT consultant Marcus Povey said: “Facebook is particularly problematic in this regard- their API (application programming interface) provides very limited interaction with the site which is done I suspect for marketing reasons rather than technical or privacy related ones.
“The trouble comes from user contributed data – network information like who is friends with whom, likes and dislikes and demographic information- are freely given over and can be mined to provide marketing gold.”
Online fraud protection company, Early Warning’s managing director Andrew Goodwill said: “Social networking sites pose an up and coming problem.
“Wherever there is an ability to share data, there is the possibility of abuse. Although every website owner has a responsibility to secure websites and website users.”
Click here to listen to Andrew Sheldon