Okay, privacy is an ongoing concern for all of us; it's a real thing. However, there are a lot of bogus headlines regarding online privacy, and I figure some perspective is good.
Most of the panic regards Google and Facebook, and almost all of it is faked, from parties who are looking for headlines or people who don't understand tech, and panicked. Let's just say very little fact-checking was done.
There are real concerns, including the occasional bug or questionable decision, but both companies try hard to do the right thing. They consider what's the right thing for their communities in their decision making, which is an unusual business practice. Maybe the big difference is that Facebook takes a millennial view of privacy (per Zuckerberg) and that Google has a more traditional perspective (as do I... we're old).
In particular, neither company sells your personal data. There are a lot of companies who do that kind of thing, like banks. (That's one reason we need a serious Consumer Financial Privacy Board.)
The deal with both companies is that they offer us services in return for the privilege of targeting ads to us individually. That can be done without disclosing personal info to advertisers.
It's a deal I'm okay with.
Both companies might share some blame for some of the panic around their privacy policies, since they frequently do a really bad job discussing those policies. However, almost all the problems you hear about are, at best, greatly exaggerated.
The solution requires some quiet industry action, and I'm doing what I can.
Normally, I'd conclude with "more later"... but sometimes, I get more done while keeping my mouth shut, publicly.
Follow Craig Newmark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craignewmark
There's also a set of tricky issues around how law enforcement and our legislatures deal with gathering information about people on these services which has yet to be fully addressed. For now, there are enough gaps that in the laws around the world, that breaching people's privacy more frequently than not goes without any real consequences to the breachers or those enabling the breach to happen, but the consequences to those whose lives have been affected is all too real.
While I appreciate your core point, I believe you may be falling into the trap that your claiming exists in how privacy issues seem to be greatly exaggerated, as you've provided an overly simplified position of the issue(s) here.
With secret tracking cookies revealed, the sucker who is chosen to address the "mistake" and/or "unintentional action", is merely giving excuses for something well-planned within the inner-workings of their 'netfolk. Its never accidental- such a claim is made when someone detects and publicly announces their findings.
We may be users or consumers, but to them we are guinea pigs & money-makers. I dont use facebook and wont. The invasion of our lives is more than a status or timeline history- in a case like this, we are the 1%; we only know a 16th of the half of everything. They know the other 99....
Why? Because it generates the most clicks. I figure this article will get maybe 20-40 comments and maybe 10k-20k views.
Post an article that says Google is stealing your data or Facebook is messing with your privacy? 3,000 comments and 500k page views.
Thanks for doing the responsible thing for once and choosing facts over cash.