Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

ACLU to Facebook: Get Quiz Apps Out of Users' Business

by Lee Bains on August 27, 2009 at 05:10 PM

Update: In response to Canada's Office of the Privacy Commisioner's yearlong investigation of Facebook's privacy policies, Facebook has announced that it will improve privacy controls for users. More after the break.

In a surprising bit of news from CNET, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken issue with Facebook's treatment of its users' privacy.

As anybody who's spent time on Facebook can attest, third-party quiz applications run rampant. A quick glance at your 'friends feed' will yield a barrage of quizzes wondering, "What kind of kisser are you?" or "What state should you live in?" What you may not know, according to the ACLU, is that -- by taking one of those quizzes -- you are volunteering your personal profile information (your religious beliefs, political views, sexual orientation, photographs, Wall posts) for the quiz creators to use in whatever way they see fit. Even if a participating user's profile is set to 'private', a third party can access said information. Most startlingly, if a friend takes a quiz, most of your visible profile information is, by default, made available to the creator of that quiz -- even if you don't take it yourself. In order to raise awareness of this fact, the ACLU has -- funnily enough -- put together a Facebook quiz asking users how much they know about Facebook quizzes.

To its credit, Facebook doesn't deny any of this. Still, its defense strikes us as pretty weak. According to CNET, a Facebook spokesperson points out that a user's contact information is not available to these third parties. The ACLU thinks, though, that this is not nearly enough. The Book is apparently willing to sit down and talk with the ACLU, but we have a piece of advice for the interim: don't take Facebook quizzes. At best, your information will remain private and, at the very least, you won't annoy your friends. [From: CNET]

Update: According to DigitalMediaWire, Facebook's updated privacy policy requires Facebook apps to be clear about what information is being accessed from a user. Similarly, the user must consent before any data from the user or the user's friends is shared. Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook, said today in a press conference, "Really, they [developers] should only have to access certain pieces of information at certain times, and we want to give users more control."

Tags: aclu, facebook, facebook apps, FacebookApps, privacy, social networking, SocialNetworking, top

Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular