Facebook’s latest feature — the Like button — may create privacy problems for federal agencies. Federal Computer Week explains the new feature:
The new Facebook technology, called “social plugins,” is designed to enable users to click on a “like” button when visiting content on other Web sites and have their Facebook profiles automatically updated with that content. That personal information is then available to other people or organizations that a Facebook member connects with — including federal agencies.
The problem is that federal agencies have to comply with privacy requirements when they collect personal information about individuals. Facebook’s Fan feature, which the Like button replaced, did not require users to share their personal profiles with organizations they followed. “I’ve had government agencies tell me they like fan pages because it allows them to interact with people without getting a lot of information on those people,” said Ari Schwartz, vice president and chief operating officer for the Center for Democracy and Technology. People can take steps to protect their personal profiles when using social plug-ins, but the default setting lets Facebook share this information. Link to full story in Federal Computer Week.
Comments on this entry are closed.