Tell Me I'm Missing Something

I must be missing something here. I'm reading the magazine The Week, a tidbit about Facebook.

For those of you who aren't familiar with The Week, it's a compendium of short synopses of news stories and articles as reported by other journals worldwide. A single short article might quote several other journals or writers, some of whom may have covered the essential story very differently.

Anyway, the tidbit in question is about "Facebook's ambitions new plan to expand its presence to other websites," prompting a "sharp warning about our privacy" from Democrat Senator Charles Schumer.

Astoundingly, Schumer finds a privacy danger in Facebook users being able to click on a "like" button on pretty much any website (in essence, Facebook users will see a "like" button added as web pages as they browse). When the like button is clicked, the page will automatically appear on the user's Facebook page.

Schumer's objection to this? Quoth he, "Facebook is limiting users' ability to keep their Web browsing private."

Come again?

Let's see... I opt in for Facebook. Don't have to do it, can quit if I want.

I choose to click on the "Like" button. Or don't. If I don't, nothing gets published to my Facebook page.

Oooh, danger, Will Robinson!! People will know what I have actively added to my Facebook page as something I like!!! My privacy has been invaded!

I am the first one to not like invasive practices on the Internet. I don't like it when I'm sent places I never intended to go, I certainly don't like it when software is downloaded to my computer without my knowledge or consent; I'm not even crazy about having my habits and tasted tracked and used, even in the aggregate, to target me and others like me more effectively with marketing.

But still... this is an all voluntary arrangement. Either the article as reported, or Chuck Schumer, are way off base on this one.

Comments

Popular Posts