Facebook to Share Your Info for Money
Updated: Wednesday, 28 Apr 2010, 10:36 AM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 27 Apr 2010, 11:01 PM EDT
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Sandy Hanlon
Regional Representative
Congressman Steve King
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Sioux City, Iowa 51101
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MINNEAPOLIS – Facebook is now sharing your personal profile information with third parties. For now, it’s just a few web sites, like the music site Pandora, and the consumer review site, Yelp.
Facebook is automatically sharing that information, without your consent. If you don’t want to share, you have to opt out.
University of Minnesota law professor and privacy expert Bill McGevern says it’s an important line in the sand. And for Facebook, with 600 million users, the stakes are high.
“Facebook is trying over and over to get this shared so Facebook becomes the center of the web,” said McGevern.
Facebook wants to make money by selling user information.
Last week, Facebook announced new features designed to unlock more of the data accumulated about its users during its six-year history. The senators said the recent changes by Facebook fundamentally alter the relationship between users and the social networking site. Before the change, users had control over what information they wished to share publicly and what information they wanted to keep private.
Among other things, Facebook is plugging into other websites so people can communicate their interests with friends, colleagues and acquaintances online. Facebook also changed its own website to create more pages where users’ biographical information could be exposed to a wider audience.
In a statement, Facebook said, “these new products and features are designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity. All of Facebook’s partner sites interact with a user’s consent.”