Spam is a very modern day annoyance. Were you to be stopped in the street and harassed by an overzealous student loudly informing you of the benefits of a sex product or gambling service they were being paid to advertise, then there would certainly be some sort of public outcry. They wouldn’t be able to peddle such goods for very long that’s for sure.
This makes it strange then, that we are constantly bombarded with such bothers whenever we use the internet. Our inboxes are protected to some degree should we go through the rigmarole of putting in place a guard, but the odd unsavoury advert will still slip through anyway.
It’s great news then, that a pair of men have been fined $230 million for tricking over 700,000 MySpace users into visiting pornographic and gambling sites. The social networking site was quick to support the court’s decision. Chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam said: “MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site. We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members.”
But is Mr Nigam slightly hypocritical? His company takes its users data and allows advertisers access to it so they can target their consumers efficiently. This is to be expected – such precious information is worth a fortune, of course websites will do this. It’s hardly ethical, but at least MySpace do their members the honor of offering them the opportunity to opt-out.
Now, if we’re talking about the real bad guys of cyber-space, then we must refer to Facebook. This site has taken so many liberties, it’s a wonder all its users have not logged off for good, but of course they won’t, they can’t – what if someone writes on their wall?
A facebook Profile
Last November the site announced a new initiative: ‘Facebook Ads’. Up until then, members’ data was sold to advertisers, leading to the freakily relevant adverts that appear with each click. But with Facebook Ads the creepy level was raised up a notch.
A release stated: “Users can become a fan of a business and can share information about that business with their friends and act as a trusted referral. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed.”
What this statement dances around stating quite clearly is that your picture could end up next to a broadcast advert for a product you have unwittingly “become a fan of”. All you need to have done is merely visit a company’s Facebook page. And this is all without your permission or knowledge.
But most of this blatant disregard for privacy has been overshadowed. As a blog on website Wired puts it: “Since the platform’s release, most of the focus has been on a feature called Beacon, which informs people in your Facebook network about what you’re doing on affiliated third-party sites. For example, if you buy tickets to a new flick on Fandango, your buddies will find out which movie you saw through a line in their Facebook news feed.”
Thankfully, the proverbial is starting to hit the fan and members are campaigning for an end to such undertakings, with groups like ‘My photos are MINE! NOT Facebook’s! Change the Terms and Conditions’ attracting up to 35,000 angry members. Now, founder Mark Zuckerburg has also been forced to change the Beacon feature to opt-in.
Why do we carry on letting Facebook and other such sites use us like this? For all the moaning and groaning we do, in the end, it is us who joined the site and it is us who carries on posting pictures and information. There is one simple way to stop it.
