This post is again in response to the question posed by Arthur Kegerreis in his blog post Censorship, Ann Magnuson, Lisa Douglass, David DePalo and the KGB, in which he asks: “when corporate interests dictate the rules for a society, online or not, [are] the community’s best interests . . . ultimately . . . served?”

[S]miley-face posturing aside, users should never forget that Facebook remains, at heart, not a community but a Silicon Valley startup, always hungry for exponential growth and new revenue streams. So be sure to review those new privacy “options,” and take Facebook’s recommendations with a huge grain of salt.   Valleywag  Facebook’s New ‘Privacy’ Scheme Smells Like an Anti-Privacy Plot.

Taking control of your own privacy by using the privacy settings that Facebook offers is a good start – but it’s time to start demanding more of the companies who hold our personal information. Tell Facebook that you want better privacy protection for your personal information.  ACLU   What Do Facebook Quizzes Know About You?

The Norwegian Consumer Council, has studied the privacy policies and terms and conditions of social networking sites and says that many do not properly protect Norwegian users and do not comply with Norwegian law.   Consumer group preps legal challenge to Facebook terms – Getting poked all the way from Norway.

 The Assistant Commissioner determined that Facebook did not have adequate safeguards in place to prevent unauthorized access by application developers to users’ personal information, and furthermore was not doing enough to ensure that meaningful consent was obtained from individuals for the disclosure of their personal information to application developers.   Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

 
So when you “check your Facebook page” today, also check your privacy page with this tool:  http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/facebook