New Law to Protect Social Networkers

From the Huffington Post:
A landmark law proposed in California would upend social networking sites' privacy policies by instituting new restrictions on what user information is shared and requiring sites to institute more stringent privacy settings.

Internet companies and trade associations have already opposed proposal "SB242," authored by Senator Ellen Corbett, arguing that it would have "unintended consequences," a negative effect on their business, and force users to make uninformed decisions about their privacy, by making them choose their privacy settings before ever using the social networking services. 

The bill, which would apply only to users in California, would prohibit sites from displaying users' home addresses or telephone numbers without their consent and would mandate services remove of any information about a user within 48 hours of the request, or face a $10,000 fine.

Under the proposed law, social networking sites would be required to have all users choose their privacy settings--explained in "plain language"--as part of the registration process. It also spells out a privacy setting that would be mandated to serve as the default on all sites and that would prohibit "the display...of any information about a registered user, other than the user's name and city of residence, without the agreement of the user."

This shit better get passed. Because I want some national legislation that works like this. Look, I think it is hypocritical for people to bitch at Facebook for sharing their info. The site is about sharing info. But I do think that the default settings shouldn't involve Facebook giving third parties my information. I should have to set my preferences to share my info, not dig through the control panel on Facebook to prevent third party websites from getting my phone number.

It isn't like Facebook will stop making money if this passes either. It will just make it harder for them to sell their product. This leads me to my next point.

Facebook idiots of America. Think about Facebook this way. Facebook's product is your information. Which you post willingly on your page. They then sell that product to third party companies. Mostly internet sites. These sites do any number of things. They run those annoying ads on Facebook's site. They use your information and likes for marketing purposes. They put their product on Facebook and gauge reactions.

Your personal information is gold these days people. Facebook is cool, but as a company it is out to sell your information for a profit. Just remember that.