Facebook's Change - Make Your Voice Heard!

In a blog post Monday evening, Facebook stated that it would be moving ahead with the privacy policy changes it proposed on March 26^th without any suggestion that it will make any changes to those proposals, despite extensive criticism of the proposals and a recent web poll showing that 95% of respondents think that the changes are a bad idea.

Facebook's proposed changes affect user privacy in many ways. As we detailed in our blog, Facebook's "app gap" by allowing application developers to store and use the data they collect even after a user deletes the application. The changes also suggest that the whole category of "connections"–which seems to include everything from friends and favorite bands to groups and events–will have absolutely no privacy from applications and third party websites. Other criticism has focused on the fact that certain third party websites will now be able to access Facebook users' profile information even before the user registers with the website. And, finally, the changes allow more extensive data retention by applications and websites, when most Facebook users already don't understand the degree to which applications installed by their friends can access their own personal information.

Unfortunately, despite its stated commitment to a democratic process, Facebook has not announced any intention of modifying its proposed changes in response to these criticisms. Instead, according to the blog post, the new documents will be "live on the site in the coming days."

Tell Facebook that it owes you, its users, changes to its proposal that address your concerns. Please sign our petition and tell Facebook to give you full control over your personal information! And don't forget to join our new privacy campaign, Demand Your dotRights!