Can’t blame the wind
From The Los Angeles Times
The clearest lesson from Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s 10 hours of testimony on Capitol Hill this week is that members of Congress don’t have much of a grasp on what the privacy problems are online, let alone how to fix them. The recent revelations about Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, however, should make at least one thing abundantly clear to lawmakers: Consumers need more control over how their personal information is used and shared online.
Making his first appearances before Congress, Zuckerberg testified at three Senate and House committee hearings about a variety of hot topics, from Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election to alleged partisan bias by Facebook’s content moderators. He probably would not have made the trip, though, if not for the news that the political data firm Cambridge Analytica had improperly obtained information about 87 million Facebook users from the developer of a popular Facebook app.
Facebook learned about the unauthorized disclosure late in 2015 but did not tell its users about it until this year. That’s problem No. 1. Congress has dragged its feet for years on legislation to compel timely disclosures of data leaks, effectively preventing the market (that is, consumers) from punishing companies that don’t safeguard the personal information they collect. Mandating those disclosures is long overdue.
More broadly, the incident showed how seemingly innocuous personal data could be used in unexpected and non-innocuous ways. Cambridge Analytica developed “psychographic” profiles of millions of individuals, by name, in an effort to help its clients — including Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — sway the results of elections. The company sought to take advantage of users’ susceptibilities to craft political messages and influence their votes.
It’s safe to say that few of those 87 million people understood that using Facebook to share items with friends would shape how a political candidate would try to win their support. That’s problem No. 2. Sites and services online will tell you — often in tiny type and legalistic language — how they plan to use your data themselves. And if they intend to share or sell your data, they’ll generally tell you that too. But they won’t tell you how those other sites and services will use your information.
Facebook insists that it doesn’t sell its users’ data. Instead, it sells advertising space, and it uses what it knows about you to target advertisers’ messages for a fee. More problematic are the data brokers that gather data, then sell it to others to use for … whatever. Ultimately, the threads of information captured about us on sites across the internet get woven into remarkably complete profiles, which can be used to shape what we see online, the prices we pay, the secrets we reveal, the opportunities offered to or withheld from us.
Some brokers build their databases with data collected by other companies. Others, such as Evite, a site for sending invitations online to events, and Edmunds, a car review site, sell data collected from their own visitors to marketers for use elsewhere — a twist that few of those sending invites to their kids’ birthday parties or shopping for a vehicle may fully appreciate.
Even Facebook, though, assembles and digests information about internet users in unexpected ways. Like Google, it spreads a data dragnet far beyond its own site and apps such as Instagram and Messenger, collecting personal data even from people who aren’t on its social network.
What’s missing is a baseline set of rules to ensure that all online sites, services and apps reveal what they’re collecting and why, and give people a meaningful say over whether and with whom their data is shared — in plain English. That sort of transparency and control isn’t a threat to the advertiser-supported internet; users will no doubt continue to trade away some element of their privacy for content and services they value. But that exchange should be fair and fully informed, rather than simply an engine for the lucrative data-brokering business.
Concerns about privacy cross the political spectrum, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal presents Congress an opportunity to act. If it doesn’t, it can expect to see more states take up measures like the Consumer Right to Privacy Act, a measure that proponents are trying to put on the California ballot in November. Unless Congress wants a patchwork quilt of privacy laws for the internet, it needs to get moving.
Although we have plenty of fast food, drive-thru restaurants in Rome, there is not always a great place to park and enjoy a lunch. One of my favorite spots with the grandchildren is to park at the back of the old Kmart lot and watch the trains go by as we eat. There are always several other cars there during lunch time, either watching the trains as we do, or just to find a quiet shade to eat and relax under before going back to work.
We have never noticed anyone throwing their bags or cups out of their cars and often wonder where the large array of trash comes from, making this a site that Rome and Floyd County should not be proud of.
Many roads in Floyd County have trash piled up near remote refuse sites that I can explain to them, but I just tell my grandkids that the wind blows all of it over until the trees catch it all.
I don’t know who owns this property, Kmart, the railroad or a private company, but we as Romans should start to take responsibility for trash that the wind is blamed for. I could make a very long list of how it starts out, just like a small creek that grows into a river. Everyone should be aware of what just a small amount of litter can grow to become. Rome is better than this. Larry Gambrell
Silver Creek
Decades ago most American cities, including Rome, enacted common sense Property Zoning Laws to assure home buyers that one of the most important purchases of their life would be protected against inappropriate activities by their neighbors.
These right and proper municipal codes have enabled millions of homeowners to watch their original investment grow into a sizable nest egg for their retirement years. Most residents accept these local codes as normal requirements for the good of everyone in their community. Today however, more than just a few residents have taken the attitude that those laws are for other people, not them.
For example — for over a year, a very large 18-ton diesel construction equipment service vehicle has established residency on both the street and in the driveway of a nice single-family home in West Rome.
Every weekday, anywhere between 5 a.m. and sometimes as late as midnight, residents can see and hear this large Kenworth diesel truck with its world famous black and yellow logo, making its way to and from work up, down and around blind curves and over the hills through the quiet neighborhood streets while making thousands of dollars for its owner.
Common sense and decency on the part of the truck’s corporate owner should have prevented this commercial activity from ever getting started in a residential neighborhood.
As of this writing, there has been little interest or action on the part of law enforcement or code enforcement offices to correct this obviously detrimental activity in our once quiet single-family subdivision.
Multimillion dollar tennis courts, nice hotels, a quaint downtown and first class medical centers make a glowing story for the Rome-Floyd Chamber to tell potential visitors, but quality of life issues in our neighborhoods where families live and play are more important to most homeowners in Rome.
Heavy commercial vehicles have no place in any residential neighborhood. Paul Petersen
Rome
Reading the front page of last Tuesday’s Rome News-Tribune concerning the future of neighborhood enhancement programs, I felt that Jim Powell of Young Harris city officials should be reminded that Summerville Park, the 30-day Neighborhood Enhancement Program, was a great success. You, the public, are invited to view the neighborhood and observe how beautiful it looks this week. No trash around, no lawns overgrown and plenty of flowers to enjoy. The neighbors wrote to the City of Rome a big “thank you” for all that was accomplished for it. The Rome Police Department did a fantastic job in slowing traffic for us. In my opinion, the city should not give up on the excellent idea. A 30-day NEP would be welcomed by other neighborhoods! While the city felt that “the sustainability component … was not being met,” the 30-day model presented by Summerville Park was met, in the opinions of the neighbors. Don’t give up too quickly!
ASusan B. Daniel Rome fter just four short months into 2018, here are some things that really need to be addressed. Restaurants with employees who handle food, you should not have a beard. Twice I’ve found beard hair in my food.
Excessive, noisy muffler and stereos, the noise ordinance needs to be enforced. When you come downtown, if you read 32 signs that say “Residents Only,” don’t park there and expect your car not to be towed. I don’t come to your house and disrespect, so don’t come to mine and do it.
Last but not least, the new food court needs to advertise where their customers should park. It’s certainly not where I live. Wake up people. John Johnston
Rome