> Obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years.
This is assuming Facebook will be around in 20 years.
Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
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Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#22So the penalty for ongoing repeated lies and fraud is.... nothing. Zero. The FTC has investigated, and the settlement is zero money and zero penalties. Not one dollar. Whew! I'm glad they were punished! They won't do THAT again! The U.S. is really in late-stage empire breakdown. I don't think there is any significant enforcement of any laws whatsoever against companies and people that are reasonably well connected. T…
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Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#23Privacy policies aren't binding contracts or agreements. They're just stated policies.
Why do people treat them like contracts?
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#24So the penalty for ongoing repeated lies and fraud is.... nothing. Zero. The FTC has investigated, and the settlement is zero money and zero penalties. Not one dollar. Whew! I'm glad they were punished! They won't do THAT again! The U.S. is really in late-stage empire breakdown. I don't think there is any significant enforcement of any laws whatsoever against companies and people that are reasonably well connected. T…
Care to fill in the logical leap from your second to third lines?
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#25You know... people could just take responsibility for sharing their private information. If they don't think a website "privacy policy" is enough of an assurance, it is their fault for accepting that risk. FB should not be blamed for sharing information that others freely share with FB. It's ridiculous. It's even more ridiculous to think that government regulation is somehow needed to protect privacy. How absurd. "I…
I gave my info to FB and they promised to only share it with certain people. Then they made that info publicly available. That's a breach of trust, and possibly criminal.
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember very well when the first one happened. It pissed me off because someone got to see some information I thought was private after I went to the trouble of going through Facebook's previous 50 privacy settings.
My family had a major falling out with my father, to the point where myself and my sister had a restraining order against him when I was 7 and she was 9. I haven't seen him or talked to him in 16 years. After Facebook deleted my privacy settings, I had a message from him sitting in my inbox the next day. My sister called me, crying, because she had gotten the same message. Both of our accounts were previously unsearc…
Shit, that sucks -- people are not yet aware of the damage the lack of online privacy can bring. And I fear that because of inertia, when the damages will become visible, then it will be too late.
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#27So the penalty for ongoing repeated lies and fraud is.... nothing. Zero. The FTC has investigated, and the settlement is zero money and zero penalties. Not one dollar. Whew! I'm glad they were punished! They won't do THAT again! The U.S. is really in late-stage empire breakdown. I don't think there is any significant enforcement of any laws whatsoever against companies and people that are reasonably well connected. T…
On what legal basis would you expect a financial penalty for a free, voluntary-participation online service that did the things that the FTC found that Facebook did? What does the law on the subject give the FTC authority to do?
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#28Wow, this list is brutal: -In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance. - Facebook represented that third-party apps that users' installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact,…
This sentence: "including giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers' express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established" was the killer to me. It forces FB to much more transparent about what it does with data and could have a significant shift in its revenue model.
> "...their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established"
Face-palm. That's an oxymoron by definition.
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#29> Obtain periodic assessments of its privacy practices by independent, third-party auditors for the next 20 years. This is assuming Facebook will be around in 20 years.
This is assuming Facebook will be around in 20 years.
This binds successor corporations operating Facebook's business and thus changes the potential value of Facebook as an acquisition target (and thus as a retail investment choice when it becomes publicly traded).
Re: Facebook settles with FTC, under privacy watch for 20 years
#30Wow, this list is brutal: -In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance. - Facebook represented that third-party apps that users' installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact,…
This sentence: "including giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining consumers' express consent before their information is shared beyond the privacy settings they have established" was the killer to me. It forces FB to much more transparent about what it does with data and could have a significant shift in its revenue model.
The trouble is, it only "forces" Facebook to do anything if there will be meaningful sanctions if they don't.
They've just been found, in a formal investigation, to have broken numerous fundamental privacy laws across several continents, and been punished with... absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell.
All this has done is teach them that they are above the law and should feel free to continue doing whatever they like without regard to the consequences for the hundreds of millions of real people who are counting on them to behave responsibly.