On regulating Facebook: the time has come
Viele sind auf Facebook, um soziale Kontakte zu pflegen oder aufzubauen und nehmen dabei auch die bekannten Sicherheitslücken in Kauf oder aber unterschätzen die Risiken, die dadurch entstehen können.
In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg began Facebook, or The Facebook, as an undergraduate at Harvard University. Its roots lie in a prank played on unsuspecting fellow students. The punchline was how many would blindly turn over their secrets to him. “I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses,” Mr Zuckerberg bragged to a friend. “People just submitted it. I don’t know why. They ‘trust me.’ Dumb fucks.” Even if his pejorative description was half-joking, his insight was real. His teenage precociousness led him to build a vast surveillance machine around the false impression that users have control over what is shared. In truth, Facebook users have little authority over what is shared about them . ...
Facebook has now stopped sharing friends’ data via third-party apps but it has not stopped using such information itself. Now advertisers come directly to Facebook. The reason why they do so is that Facebook’s data is a window into its users’ souls . ... Data is Facebook’s gold. People will pay for it. New web technology has created many unexpected ways for corporations to track web activity. But Facebook is a treasure trove of the most intimate data . ... [P]eople have social reasons to participate on social network sites, and these social motivations — which revolve around creating an identity, building relationships and being part of a community — explain both why users value Facebook despite its privacy risks and why they underestimate those risks.
Understanding this is vital for understanding why government must have a role in safeguarding public privacy. Given what is emerging, it seems madness to allow Facebook, Google and Amazon direct access to bank accounts. Yet that is what is happening... The UK will adopt EU rules that will give users more power to opt out of being tracked online — but it’s unclear how adherence to such rules will be ensured . ...
Guardian News & Media 2018