Al Franken: Facebook's Proposed Privacy Plan Puts Users at Great Risk

Al Franken: Facebook's Proposed Privacy Plan Puts Users at Great Risk

via Technology on HuffingtonPost.com by Al Franken on 3/11/11

In January, Facebook made a troubling announcement that it plans to allow third-party developers to request access to the home addresses and phone numbers of users. Despite Facebook's insistence that it will protect its users, I believe this policy will place users at great risk. That's why I wrote a letter with Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to stop plans for this new third party access to personal data. Armed with nothing more than a Facebook user's phone number and home address, anyone with an Internet connection and a few dollars can obtain personal information they should never have access to, including a user's date of birth, e-mail address, or estimated income. In fact, by using this information, an identity thief could get almost all of the data he would need to apply for a loan or a credit card in the name of an unsuspecting Facebook user.

And even more alarming, Facebook's new privacy policy would endanger the privacy and safety of children as young as 13. Under Facebook's policy, 13 million users under the age of 18 may be allowed to share their personal information just like adult users. These younger users are the most vulnerable to predators on Facebook and the rest of the Internet and it should be impossible for them to inadvertently share their phone numbers and home addresses with anyone.

The boom of new technologies over the last several years has made it easier to keep in touch with family and friends, but it has also put an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of large companies and unknown third parties. It's important that Facebook protect its users by reversing their plans to permit developers to request and access this private information. It's even more important that Facebook protect the children who use its website by never allowing them to accidentally share their phone numbers and home addresses with people who may want to hurt them.

Posted via email from The New Word Order