If you are one of the more than 400 million active users of Facebook, you may be interested in some news from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Briefly, Facebook is changing the way your personal information is shared. Things that previously were kept private if you wished (such as your hometown, your education, and your interests) are now going to be collated on public sites even if your privacy settings are set at the strictest level. Facebook claims this is to allow people who are interested in, say, cooking, to immediately see everyone else who shares that interest, but the EFF (and I) maintain that it is really only useful to the advertisers and companies who use Facebook as a cheap source of marketing information. Even if that's not the case I find the breach of privacy appalling on a personal level. I certainly don't mind if people know that I'm interested in cooking, but what if I worked in a non-unionized job and had followed unions on Facebook? What if I lived in a country where women were oppressed, and showed an interest in women's rights groups? Publicizing people's private interests and affiliations can expose them to personal and professional danger and humiliation.
I urge you to contact Facebook today and protest this invasion of privacy. I also urge you to delete any sensitive information from your Facebook account. Today, mix it up by speaking up -- it's only by sharing our voices that change can be made!
(I am not affiliated with either Facebook or the EFF, although I am an outspoken supporter of the EFF's mission of defending our digital rights.)
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