Facebook is "deliberately killing privacy", says Schneier
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Security expert hits out at social networking site and others for trading in privacy for profit
Social networking websites are "deliberately killing privacy" in order to make a profit, according to renowned security author Bruce Schneier.
Speaking at the RSA Europe security conference in London on Tuesday, the BT Counterpane CTO cited Facebook as the most heinous example of social networks cashing in on users' openness toward sharing personal details. "Don't make the mistake of thinking you're Facebook's customer, you're not – you're the product," Schneier said. "Its customers are the advertisers."
Schneier said that governments must introduce "broader" information security and privacy laws that limit how data shared online can be used in a commercial context.
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Presently, he explained, the pace of technlogical change means some legislation dates quickly. "Generally, laws are written about specific technologies," Schneier said. "When those laws were written, people weren't thinking 'how is this going to be different in ten years?'"
The US author also lamented that online social networking had led to the death of the "ephemeral conversation", as anything said by an individual - or about them - is recorded permanently in their "digital footprint", and can later be used against them. "Forgetting is a very powerful social tool that helps us get by and get along," Schneier observed. "Your Facebook page will still be there after you die."
Schneier is not the first to criticise Facebook over its attitude to user privacy. In May 2010, US consumer watchdog the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, along with several other rights groups, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over changes Facebook made to its privacy settings. The changes were perceived as encouraging users to be more open with sharing data.
In January of this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg controversially remarked that the notion of privacy is changing. “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” he said. “That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”
Bruce Schneier raises some concerns about how Facebook works with advertisers and what it does with people’s data. These concerns are based on some misconceptions so we wanted to clarify the facts for you.
Advertising is Facebook’s business model but nothing is more important to us than user experience, safety and enjoyment. We never share personally identifiable information with advertisers nor do we sell personal information to anyone. Advertisers only ever see annonymised and aggregated data. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, explains how advertising works in relation to privacy here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=403570307130
Users control and own all of their data on Facebook and this is clearly set out in our terms: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php. Users control when to add information to Facebook, when to change it and when to take it down. This is not affected by any third party. To find out what other people can see about you on Facebook then click “Preview my profile”.
You can visit our Help centre (http://www.facebook.com/help/), Safety Centre (http://www.facebook.com/help/?safety) and Guide to privacy (http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php) to find out more about safety, privacy and security on Facebook.”
Sophy Silver, Facebook’s press office
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