fbpx
Breaking Campus News. Launching Media Careers.
Facebook's 'Places' creates privacy problems

New geolocation applications like Facebook’s Places are drawing the attention of privacy advocates and technology experts — but not necessarily social media users.

“Of the 500 million Facebook users, 450 million don’t realize the depth of Facebook settings like Places,” said Steven Zink, former editor in chief of the Journal of Government Information and vice president of technology at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Places, introduced to Facebook’s staple repertoire of applications Aug. 18, is a smartphone based service that allows users to “check in” at a location, or make known their whereabouts via their account. The service also allows friends to check each other in and post each other’s locations.

Although users are free to opt out of the service, Places is automatically enabled without user consent. The result could be the availability of personal information, including a person’s whereabouts in real time, unbeknownst to the user, Zink said.

“You are not positively assenting to do this,” Zink said. “Facebook is not coming out and asking you, ‘Do you want these people to know where you are?’”

[…] “I think it’s really a risk,” Zink said. “One grows up with a sense of ‘don’t take candy from strangers, don’t get in a car with a stranger.’ It’s almost like magic now that you can know where one is, and actually see where they are.”

While the government’s ability to collect information on citizens is limited, no laws dictate the amount of private information a corporation can collect from willing users, Zink said.

“The U.S. Constitution is basically silent on privacy,” he said. “There’s a lot of restraint on government to do this, but not so much on business.”

The American Civil Liberties Union says the new Facebook service is problematic. Lee Rowland, the ACLU of Nevada’s northern coordinator, said it is Facebook’s responsibility to inform users about where private information may end up.

Read the full story at the Nevada Sagebrush.

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter

Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.