BATTLING BLOGOSPHERE RUMOURS and European Commission
criticism, Facebook is fighting on all fronts over its privacy policies
and actions.
Rejecting as untrue a claim on the All Facebook unofficial
news blog that it was to have an all-hands meeting over privacy
problems, the social notworking company has also thrown back at the Brussels
bureaucrats' suggestions that users use pseudonyms to attempt to
remain anonymous.
"Facebook has always been based on a real name culture, and we
fundamentally believe this leads to greater accountability and a safer
and more trusted environment for our users. There are plenty of places
on the Internet where a person can be anonymous - Facebook is not one of
them." And don't its users know it.
The EC Commission criticism came from its Article 29
Working Party, a body composed of European nation's data protection
authorities. It had written to Facebook. saying changes to the website's
privacy policies were "unacceptable" and that it lacked sufficiently
granular controls. The working party's letter included suggestions for
improvement, some of which the social notworking company acknowledges it
could make and others it rejects, like the use of pseudonyms.
An alternative to Facebook has already
garnered US press coverage on the back of privacy fears. Called Diaspora, four students began work on it
after hearing a talk on privacy by Eben Moglen of Columbia University. He warned that
social networks are not much more than legitimised spying.
Or you could choose not to use social notworking sites and not bore
everyone with the minutia of your lives - information that apparently is
only really enjoyed by marketeers.