2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
The New Hotel California: Facebook
'You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave'
Lauren Salem
Issue date: 2/24/08 Section: Opinion
Many users join Facebook or the "social network that connects you with the people around you" and never realize that they've walked into a room surrounded by hidden surveillance cameras.
"It's like the Hotel California," Nipon Das, an ex-facebook member said to the New York Times. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
For two months Das tried to erase his profile and even with help from Facebook's customer service representatives, his profile was still found, according to the New York Times.
Facebook invades the privacy of its members through the use of its applications and inefficient ways of closing members' accounts.
In May 2007, Facebook launched its application developer program, which now holds more than 14,000 applications. Most of these applications are created by companies outside of Facebook or by individual developers, who have access to Facebook member's personal information after members install the application.
According to an article posted by Surveillance State, the applications don't run on Facebook's servers, but on servers owned and operated by the application developers. After the application is installed, the Facebook member's profile is displayed and the application servers contact Facebook requesting the members private data.
The problem with applications is that Facebook gives application developers access to a lot more personal information than is required to run the application. The University of Virginia released a recent report that surveyed the top 150 Facebook applications and stated that 90.7 percent of applications are requiring more personal information than they need.
Application developers can access almost everything including the Facebook member's name and address, interests, relationship status, future plans, network affiliations, works and education history, and photos, but that's not all. In Facebook's lengthy application terms of service, members also agree to give this information about their friends without their consent.
"They seem to be going on the assumption that if someone uses Facebook, they really have no privacy concerns," Daniel Solove, a law professor and privacy expert at George Washington University said to Surveillance State. "A kind of vague notice in a privacy policy that no one reads suddenly permits Facebook to do whatever they want with minimal to no privacy protections."
Members use developer applications at their own risk, because according to the Facebook application terms of service "[each application] has not been approved, endorsed, or reviewed in any manner by Facebook…we are not responsible for…the privacy practices or other policies of the Developer."
Besides sharing a Facebook members' personal information with application developers, Facebook also keeps backup copies of the member's account on their servers which is difficult to erase.
Steve Mansour, a Canadian online community developer, spent two weeks trying to delete all the information off of his Facebook account, which frustrated him enough to create a blog entry called "2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account," according to the New York Times. The blog included e-mail messages sent to and from Facebook's costumer service representative as well as diagrams that showed fallacies in Facebook's service terms.
There is no option anywhere on Facebook that lets members completely wipe out their profiles, but there is a "deactivate" option, which hides the profile from friends until it's reactivated. When an account is deactivated, Facebook still has the profile floating out in the web.
"I had to 'contact' Facebook and ask them how to delete my account only to find out that I have to manually delete every single minified item, friend, post, wall writing, etc. by hand, one-by-one, or else they will refuse to close your account," Mansour wrote in his blog "2504 steps to closing your Facebook account," "When you're a member of the Internet High Society as I am, you find that you have thousands of these items to delete."
Even after Mansour successfully deleted his account, Facebook still kept a backup copy of his profile, which is why students must be careful about what they post on Facebook. You never know who might see it.
"It's like the Hotel California," Nipon Das, an ex-facebook member said to the New York Times. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
For two months Das tried to erase his profile and even with help from Facebook's customer service representatives, his profile was still found, according to the New York Times.
Facebook invades the privacy of its members through the use of its applications and inefficient ways of closing members' accounts.
In May 2007, Facebook launched its application developer program, which now holds more than 14,000 applications. Most of these applications are created by companies outside of Facebook or by individual developers, who have access to Facebook member's personal information after members install the application.
According to an article posted by Surveillance State, the applications don't run on Facebook's servers, but on servers owned and operated by the application developers. After the application is installed, the Facebook member's profile is displayed and the application servers contact Facebook requesting the members private data.
The problem with applications is that Facebook gives application developers access to a lot more personal information than is required to run the application. The University of Virginia released a recent report that surveyed the top 150 Facebook applications and stated that 90.7 percent of applications are requiring more personal information than they need.
Application developers can access almost everything including the Facebook member's name and address, interests, relationship status, future plans, network affiliations, works and education history, and photos, but that's not all. In Facebook's lengthy application terms of service, members also agree to give this information about their friends without their consent.
"They seem to be going on the assumption that if someone uses Facebook, they really have no privacy concerns," Daniel Solove, a law professor and privacy expert at George Washington University said to Surveillance State. "A kind of vague notice in a privacy policy that no one reads suddenly permits Facebook to do whatever they want with minimal to no privacy protections."
Members use developer applications at their own risk, because according to the Facebook application terms of service "[each application] has not been approved, endorsed, or reviewed in any manner by Facebook…we are not responsible for…the privacy practices or other policies of the Developer."
Besides sharing a Facebook members' personal information with application developers, Facebook also keeps backup copies of the member's account on their servers which is difficult to erase.
Steve Mansour, a Canadian online community developer, spent two weeks trying to delete all the information off of his Facebook account, which frustrated him enough to create a blog entry called "2504 Steps to closing your Facebook account," according to the New York Times. The blog included e-mail messages sent to and from Facebook's costumer service representative as well as diagrams that showed fallacies in Facebook's service terms.
There is no option anywhere on Facebook that lets members completely wipe out their profiles, but there is a "deactivate" option, which hides the profile from friends until it's reactivated. When an account is deactivated, Facebook still has the profile floating out in the web.
"I had to 'contact' Facebook and ask them how to delete my account only to find out that I have to manually delete every single minified item, friend, post, wall writing, etc. by hand, one-by-one, or else they will refuse to close your account," Mansour wrote in his blog "2504 steps to closing your Facebook account," "When you're a member of the Internet High Society as I am, you find that you have thousands of these items to delete."
Even after Mansour successfully deleted his account, Facebook still kept a backup copy of his profile, which is why students must be careful about what they post on Facebook. You never know who might see it.
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