Does Facebook really care about protecting its users' privacy? Facebook's history appears to demonstrate that the answer is no. For example, in 2012 Facebook entered into a settlement with the FTC resolving charges that it deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.
In 2012, Facebook changed Instagram's (Facebook had recently purchased it) privacy policy to enable it to better monetize its users' personal information. At that time, I stated that the changes were very troubling. Soon after making the privacy policy change announcement, Instagram (i.e. Facebook) backtracked on some of the revisions due to public backlash. In 2013, Facebook agreed to a $20 million dollar settlement in a lawsuit that alleged it utilized its users' names and likeness in paid advertisements without permission.
On April 24, 2014, Facebook purchased fitness tracking app Move. The Wall Street Journal reported that Move just "changed its privacy policy to allow broader sharing of user data, including with Facebook." Interestingly, Facebook's "move" to erode Move users' privacy took less than 2 weeks. Move users may have their fitness information combined with their likes, friend lists, photos, personal messages, etc...and this information may be sold to data brokers such as Axciom, Epsilon, Datalogix and Blue Kai. In turn, data brokers may sell your combined "likes" and fitness routine information to insurance companies, banks, etc... Unfortunately, Move/Facebook users may be discriminated against based upon their daily exercises or lack thereof.
Since companies such as Facebook appear to put privacy ahead of profits our lawmakers need to act to protect Internet/App users from Digital Usage Discrimination before it is too late.
Copyright 2014 by Shear Law, LLC. All rights reserved.
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