Facebook can't do privacy, it's impossible

[Cees Binkhorst]

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Groet / Cees

Facebook can't do privacy, it's impossible
By Asavin Wattanajantra
Thu May 06 2010, 01:22
PRIVACY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS is impossible, according to a research report.
The math says so

It all boils down to the use of recommendation engines, which mines the
links that come up on social notworking websites to recommend stuff like
contacts and products to buy.

This is great for advertising, but this type of thing obviously will end
up compromising your privacy by revealing your poor taste in music or
the fact you've been talking with your ex-wife.

Researchers at Stanford University said that breaches of privacy are
inevitable, and actually worked out that there is a fundamental limit to
the level of privacy possible when social networks are mined like this.

Simply put, information about recommendations can only be accurate if
you breach the privacy of social notworking users. Which is common sense
when you think about it.

Even if you try to preserve privacy by making data anonymous and adding
'noise', the same problems show up.

"This finding throws into serious question the feasibility of developing
social recommendation algorithms that are both accurate and
privacy-preserving for many real-world settings," said the study authors.

Facebook is a business, and these engines are one way in which it can
make money. In the pursuit of profit it breaches privacy and keeps
putting in changes that push further, but it remains to be seen whether
most people will make such a trade off to be 'social'.

It's rare to see a security researcher or a privacy advocate on
Facebook. There's a reason for that. And head honcho Mark Zuckerberg's
view? Well we already know his views on the 'privacy' you might be
expecting but won't be able to easily maintain any longer on Facebook.

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