This week we can add Facebook to the online privacy debacles of late. A change in their terms of service got users in such an uproar, I'm surprised it didn't bring down the Twitter servers. Mark Zuckerberg tried to calm the masses in a blog post on Monday explaining that they didn't actually want to own all our data forever.
Then, on Tuesday, it was reported that the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was preparing to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Now, if you've read the FTC Staff Report on Self Regulatory Principles for Behavioral Advertising, Principle 3 talks about "material changes to existing privacy promises" and states, "A company must keep the promises it makes with respect to how it handles data. If it wants to make a ‘material’ change in how the data is used, it must obtain ‘affirmative express consent’ from the affected customers." Whether EPIC was making this connection is not known.
Not surprising, Facebook did an about face today , rolling back their terms of service to the previous version. It's like a Privacy Tsunami created by millions of pissed off Facebook users. Hmmm....Perhaps the online ad industry needs to take a harder look at that FTC Staff Report. Even if you don't fear potential privacy legislation, the instantaneous public consumer outrage, courtesy of social media, is enough to keep you up at night.
– Layne Salter
Comments