When recently asked about his company's privacy problems, Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook, stated "the age of privacy is over." Sadly for Mr.Zuckerberg, he didn't know how true that statement would turn out to be.
The well known Hollywood gossip website Gawker combined with another website known as Valleywag to start a new campaign to photograph the Facebook CEO everywhere and anywhere he goes and put it up on the web. Photos ranging from him at a park to sitting at home have all been put together and posted at Gawker in an attempt to destroy any privacy that Zuckerberg might have.
"Facebook's CEO doesn't seem too preoccupied about your privacy, or about ours," says Ryan Tate, editor of the gossip website Valleywag, which posted the photographs. "Likewise, we weren't bothered by the notion of tailing him around the Valley for a few days, or about sharing the experience with you...
"If it feels a little naughty to take such a close look into Zuckerberg's life, remember that this is the executive who pushed the private information of Facebook's hundreds of millions of users progressively further into the public sphere," Tate said.
Though I doubt much will actually change from this, I applaude these bloggers for standing up for the right of privacy, though -- ironically -- their careers are spent destroying it for the Hollywood elite.
I'm not sure I agree their actions were justified -- it's not as if anyone forced these people to sign up for Facebook. Is privacy important? Yes. Have people had unfortunate things happen to them as a result of Facebook's changing privacy standards? Undoubtedly. But uhh...they signed up for Facebook, and if they're not savvy enough to adjust their privacy settings well, maybe they should stick to email.
However Bonnie the orignal conflict came from when Zuckerberg attempted to keep data even after you deleted your profile. If you remember the little spat over their change in their terms of use. That is where the quote about the end of privacy came from.
Also, though I know most here oppose the idea of conspiracy, there is evidence that the CIA was the one who funded Facebook from the ground, which one can assume they have used it ever since for data mining. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10... here is an article about it.
While of course if you have it open for the world to see it is blatantly your fault, however those who wish to have privacy and have joined expecting that much, should not expect to have the company mining data, and selling it to advertisers.
Yeah, I'd agree with the objection to underhanded changes in the privacy settings, of course. However, it should go without saying that if you don't want something known, don't put it online, no matter how private you think its repository may be.
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