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Four US Senators have apparently just been told about Facebook by their aides, and they didn't much care for the privacy policy. The Senators sent a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asking him to simplify the process of adjusting privacy settings. The signatories to the letter were Charles Schumer of New York, Mark Begich of Alaska, Michael Bennet of Colorado, and Al Franken of Minnesota.
Specifically, the correspondence encourages Facebook to exercise caution in the use of the new universal 'Like' button. The Senators are concerned that its use as a marketing tool could endanger personal information. Facebook responded immediately saying, " We've developed powerful tools to give our users control over what information they want to share, when they want to share it and with whom."
Facebook has a sordid history of forcing users to opt out of major privacy changes, so it may be a good thing someone in the government is taking notice. Older and less tech savvy individuals often have trouble interpreting Facebook's "powerful tools" for modifying privacy settings. Do you think someone needs to keep Facebook in line, or do you still have trust in them?
Comments are closed on this article
Enozo73
May 13, 2010 at 2:47pm
Facebook once was a good site. In the past 18 months they have joined the ranks of trustworthy govn't officials. I am happy to see the govn't address there issues but will it change anything? Doubt it. FB won't listen to its users so why would they list to the govn't?
WayneW
April 28, 2010 at 4:06pm
I'd trust anyone before these washington clowns.
Won't be long till we have a gov inspector in our bedroom saying "do this, NO you can't do that".
Frig the gov
PawBear
April 28, 2010 at 11:10am
Facebook is as trustworthy as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and any other large succesful business. Our well being is not their primary concern; suck us dry and spit us out. Oh, did I mention the federal government?
Defeat the spam filter. Use Lazarus: Form Recovery firefox addon.
TheZomb
April 29, 2010 at 10:22pm
I see so you trust a for profit company more than the government, whose purpose is to look out for its citizens.... I understand there is corruption in the government, but all of it is caused by for profit companies paying for it...
Jims45wow
February 17, 2011 at 2:54pm
Businesses are more concerned about bad PR. Politicians only need make 1 competitor look bad, then you buy ALL of their "products".
jraktal
April 28, 2010 at 5:54am
about when koobface came into play I was looking for an excuse to drop it.
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There is no peace at the gate.
pentastar
April 28, 2010 at 3:56am
All of that crap is the same, face book, my space...all of it, nothing but nonsense...never belonged to either one.
Nuxes
April 27, 2010 at 9:37pm
Facebook does have some pretty good privacy features, the problem is that they are mostly opt-in, so the 99.9% of users who never look at them are unknowingly sharing all kinds of private information. Facebook should realize that you can't depend on users to look out for their own safety. Corporations need to take some responsibility before the government comes knocking.
Biceps
April 28, 2010 at 10:02am
Facebook does know it, and they use that knowledge to their benefit. They are evil.
Vegan
April 27, 2010 at 9:36pm
I just never put anything on there in the first place that I wouldn't mind the world seeing.
Fecal Face
May 19, 2010 at 3:21pm
My thoughts exactly. If you don't want people seeing something, why are you posting it on the internet?
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Theatre Booth Guy
April 27, 2010 at 9:21pm
Guess I'm being censored for my views by the Minimum Posting Filter :-(
Danthrax66
April 27, 2010 at 7:37pm
I deleted (not deactivate, delete) my facebook last week that site is bullshit; much like the spam filter on this website.
wkstar
April 27, 2010 at 7:24pm
I post Very little on facebook. But maybe it's a Youngling thing to post about everytime you go pee.
hades_2100
April 27, 2010 at 6:48pm
I'm somewhat happy Facebook is around, without it, there would be no http://failbook.com/
hades
Neufeldt2002
April 27, 2010 at 6:39pm
I'm glad someone is taking to task with facebook. As far as trust, I don't, never have, never will.
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Please fix the spam filter it does not work right.
