‘A grand illusion’: seven days that shattered Facebook’s facade; Guardian, March 24, 2018

Olivia Solon, Guardian; ‘A grand illusion’: seven days that shattered Facebook’s facade

"For too long consumers have thought about privacy on Facebook in terms of whether their ex-boyfriends or bosses could see their photos. However, as we fiddle around with our profile privacy settings, the real intrusions have been taking place elsewhere.

“In this sense, Facebook’s ‘privacy settings’ are a grand illusion. Control over post-sharing – people we share to – should really be called ‘publicity settings’,” explains Jonathan Albright, the research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. “Likewise, control over passive sharing – the information people [including third party apps] can take from us – should be called ‘privacy settings’.”

Essentially Facebook gives us privacy “busywork” to make us think we have control, while making it very difficult to truly lock down our accounts."

Senator Al Franken demands Pokémon Go release privacy information; Guardian, 7/12/16

Mazin Sidahmed, Guardian; Senator Al Franken demands Pokémon Go release privacy information:

"The insanely popular Pokémon Go is collecting users’ data and sharing it with anonymous third parties, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota said in a letter to the company’s CEO on Tuesday.

The lawmaker wrote a letter to Niantic Inc’s John Hanke on Tuesday with a list of demands for further information regarding the app’s privacy settings.

“I am concerned about the extent to which Niantic may be unnecessarily collecting, using, and sharing a wide range of users’ personal information without their appropriate consent,” he wrote.

Franken, who sits on the Senate subcommittee on privacy, technology, and the law, accused the company of collecting users’ information and potentially sharing it with third-party service providers. He highlighted that most users are children and the app’s default setting is to automatically collect data, with users having to specifically “opt-out”."

Are Facebook ads outing gay users?; CNN.com, 10/21/10

Doug Gross, CNN.com; Are Facebook ads outing gay users?:

"Facebook ads are guessing whether users are gay and targeting a broad range of products to them based on the answer, according to a research study making the rounds on the internet Thursday."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/21/facebook.gay.ads/index.html?hpt=T2