The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

Facebook and internet privacy (Sen. Michael Bennet)

Facebook is by far the largest of these social networking sites, and starting with its ill-fated Beacon service privacy concerns have more than once been raised about how the ubiquitous social networking site handles its user data.

Most recently, Facebook raised eyebrows with changes to its privacy policy that would make significantly more information from user profiles accessible by third party websites, unless users could successfully navigate a confusing opt-out process.

In my view, changing the ability of external websites to access private user information from opt-in to opt-out fundamentally changed the relationship between users and Facebook.

That’s why I joined with Senators Chuck Schumer, Al Franken, and Mark Begich to write a letter to Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that read in part:

“We hope that Facebook will stand by its goal of creating open and transparent communities by working to ensure that its policies protect the sensitive personal biographic data of its users and provide them with full control over their personal information… Providing opt-in mechanisms for information sharing instead of expecting users to go through long and complicated opt-out processes is a critical step towards maintaining clarity and transparency.”

This week, Facebook announced that it would “simplify” its privacy controls to give users more control over their information.

While I would still like Facebook to offer an opt-in policy for information sharing rather than an opt-out policy, I’m glad Facebook made these changes and appreciate their responsiveness to our letter. The new privacy controls are expected to be implemented over time, so I will continue to monitor the situation to make sure users stay in charge of how their private information is used.

As we all become increasingly reliant on social networking websites and new technologies to stay connected, it’s important to remain cognizant of how private personal information and data is handled.

Crossposted from The Huffington Post.

Tags Al Franken Chuck Schumer Mark Begich

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed..

 

Main Area Top ↴

Testing Homepage Widget

 

Main Area Middle ↴
Main Area Bottom ↴

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video