Comments on: Facebook’s ocean of names becomes a torrent http://futureoftheinternet.org/facebooks-ocean-of-names-becomes-a-torrent Jonathan Zittrain is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:59:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Aries http://futureoftheinternet.org/facebooks-ocean-of-names-becomes-a-torrent/comment-page-1#comment-19042 Aries Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:57:03 +0000 http://futureoftheinternet.org/?p=1524#comment-19042 You're wrong on one very big thing. College students. Most colleges offer a database to anyone where you can search a person's first and last name and find out their local and permanent addresses, cell phone number, and home phone number even if these items are not listed on the student's facebook page. Furthermore, these students schools are automatically shown on facebook and it's not a privacy setting you can change. While it was impossible to click 171 million people's name to filter out everyone within a college, it's easy to just filter these things out once OWN THE DATABASE FILE. This opens up many college students, who are some of the youngest users among whom there are probably many who haven't used the site in years, that are open up to predators that other people simply are not. You’re wrong on one very big thing. College students. Most colleges offer a database to anyone where you can search a person’s first and last name and find out their local and permanent addresses, cell phone number, and home phone number even if these items are not listed on the student’s facebook page. Furthermore, these students schools are automatically shown on facebook and it’s not a privacy setting you can change. While it was impossible to click 171 million people’s name to filter out everyone within a college, it’s easy to just filter these things out once OWN THE DATABASE FILE. This opens up many college students, who are some of the youngest users among whom there are probably many who haven’t used the site in years, that are open up to predators that other people simply are not.

]]> By: Conor http://futureoftheinternet.org/facebooks-ocean-of-names-becomes-a-torrent/comment-page-1#comment-19040 Conor Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:25:46 +0000 http://futureoftheinternet.org/?p=1524#comment-19040 Agreed. The purpose of keeping tabs on each new development, though, is to track the direction of privacy incursions over time. Keeping Facebook's fraught privacy practices in the public spotlight decreases their public favor, trumpets the consequences of the company's controversial decisions as they unfold bit by bit in real-time, and prepares U.S. policymakers eventually to start thinking about where the line in the sand is drawn. If Senators are already writing letters to the company, Facebook might have to think twice and even three times (I can't bring myself to write "thrice" and mean it) before taking the next big step that exposes its users. If Facebook doesn't, Congress and the FTC have ready access to a time stamped record of the company's long history of privacy abuses just by plugging a few keywords into Google News Search. Admittedly, credit agencies are far worse than Facebook in violating our informational privacy. But they're regulated. Maybe Facebook should be too. Agreed. The purpose of keeping tabs on each new development, though, is to track the direction of privacy incursions over time. Keeping Facebook’s fraught privacy practices in the public spotlight decreases their public favor, trumpets the consequences of the company’s controversial decisions as they unfold bit by bit in real-time, and prepares U.S. policymakers eventually to start thinking about where the line in the sand is drawn. If Senators are already writing letters to the company, Facebook might have to think twice and even three times (I can’t bring myself to write “thrice” and mean it) before taking the next big step that exposes its users.

If Facebook doesn’t, Congress and the FTC have ready access to a time stamped record of the company’s long history of privacy abuses just by plugging a few keywords into Google News Search. Admittedly, credit agencies are far worse than Facebook in violating our informational privacy. But they’re regulated. Maybe Facebook should be too.

]]> By: Roy http://futureoftheinternet.org/facebooks-ocean-of-names-becomes-a-torrent/comment-page-1#comment-19033 Roy Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:07:52 +0000 http://futureoftheinternet.org/?p=1524#comment-19033 At last someone who can strip away the hype whilst talking intelligently. Roy At last someone who can strip away the hype whilst talking intelligently.

Roy

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