Last week researchers unveiled a “dating database” consisting of 250,000 users. This was not just any ordinary dating site where one registers to and agrees to post their information. Rather, the dating profiles were based on public information that the researchers gathered from Facebook profiles. Many people at this point cried out “Privacy!”. However, let us take a step back and remind ourselves that it is these users who were not concerned to publically publish their data in the first place! By consenting to Facebook’s term of services, they are actually agreeing to relinquish their information to a public website. With this in mind, it may be safe to say that if a user indicates their religion, or ethnicity, on Facebook they do so because they want other users to know this information and are willing—even implicitly—to take the chance that a (hypothetical) racial classification application will have access to it as well. It may also be safe to say that people who post a named defamation of their boss on their wall—or their friend’s wall —are willing to take the chance that their boss may see the post. That is the essence, or rather lack thereof, of privacy.
- AMICHAI SHULMAN, CTO AND CO-FOUNDER OF IMPERVA
- InfoSecurity
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