Facebook, the largest and most ubiquitous social network in the nascent history of social networks, has had a lot of privacy concerns. While there are data leaks, apps stealing information, and that sort of thing, the latest in Facebook’s concerns with privacy isn’t nefarious hackers, but supposedly-responsible organizations, businesses, and the like. Increasingly, businesses are asking for the Facebook passwords of potential employees, but Facebook is having none of that, telling employers that they’re willing and able to take legal action to protect user privacy.
“Facebook takes your privacy seriously,” wrote Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan in a post on Facebook. “We’ll take action to protect the privacy and security of our users, whether by engaging policymakers or, where appropriate, by initiating legal action, including by shutting down applications that abuse their privileges.”
You have to give credit to Facebook for being ahead of the curve on this one. More importantly, you have to appreciate that Facebook is actively protecting users from the very people who can scare them into voluntarily giving up their privacy: potential bosses. In this economy, people will do a lot of things to keep their job, even things that are violations of their right to privacy.
Leave a Reply