It’s now official

Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law.

I’ve written about this before, back when it was just a complaint to the Commissioner.

You bet that Facebook’s information about privacy practices is “confusing and incomplete.” Moreover, it’s confusing and incomplete by design, and not merely by accident.

Take a look at this marvellous essay by Bruce Schneier. The golden quote:

“From a business perspective, social networking sites don’t want their members to exercise their privacy rights very much. They want members to be comfortable disclosing a lot of data about themselves.”

There’s a fundamental conflict of interest at work here. The value of a social networking site depends entirely on the degree to which people participate and on the degree to which people post.

If my friends refuse to post embarrassing  photographs of my other friends on Facebook, it is no longer the go-to place for me to look at embarrassing photos of my friends. I’ll have to go elsewhere. Any reluctance to post diminishes the experience. Don’t kill the buzz.

So what makes people nervous about privacy?

Reminding them about privacy. Says Bruce,

“Reassuring people about privacy makes them more, not less, concerned.”

Even just mentioning the word makes people perk up and say, “Wow, I still have that? I’d forgotten about that.” So if you want people to throw discretion to the wind, you can’t even talk about privacy. Don’t kill the buzz. Settings become hidden away and convoluted. Education about how to use them takes a backseat.

If you don’t protect your own privacy, who will? Certainly not the business that’s trying to make a buck off of your lack of it.

But… go ahead and post that photo! All press is good press, right?

Right?