By Computerworld Philippines Staff
April 12, 2010
 
A new study conducted by IT security firm Sophos, showed that controversial changes Facebook is planning to make to its privacy policy are being universally slammed by users.

The study, conducted among 680 readers on Sophos’s website and Facebook page, found that 95% of the respondents think the privacy changes are “a bad thing.”

Only 2% of the respondents polled said they would support the change, with the remaining 3% saying they did not understand what changes Facebook was proposing.

Only last March, Facebook proposed a number of controversial changes to its privacy policy, paving the way for it to share personal information with “pre-approved” third-party websites. This means that, if you’re logged into Facebook and then visit a third party website, that site will be able to access the following: your name, profile picture, gender, your friends and connections, your user ID, and any content shared using the “Everyone” privacy setting.

This is why users may find that when they visit a website, it already knows who they are – their date of birth; where they live; and who their friends are – all, without ever having given the site explicit permission to access that data. According to Facebook, only a small number of pre-approved sites will be offered this feature, and users will be given the option to disable the feature.

As a result of a rise in public dismay around these changes, Facebook published a response which sought to justify its position and to reassure users that the company would only offer personal data to “carefully selected partners”. It also outlines that partners would be “required to provide an easy and prominent method” for users to opt out directly from their websites and delete any cached personal data.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said the study results send out a very clear message to Facebook – “its users aren’t happy.” He said for instance that most Facebook users still don’t know how to set their Facebook privacy options safely, finding the whole system confusing and long-winded.

“The onus should not be on Facebook users to ‘opt out’ of this new feature but to ‘opt in’ – making a conscious choice to engage, rather than having to make a conscious decision to decline,” Cluley said.

Cluley commented that once again, it feels like online privacy is being eroded by stealth. Too many websites are chipping away at their members’ privacy and security, potentially exposing their personal data to third parties that were never in the equation when they first signed-up for the service.

“Facebook would be doing its hundreds of millions of users a service if it thought again about this new privacy policy,” he said. – Tom S. Noda

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