Facebook’s Mark has gone bizarre!Boldly bizarre.
Mark has been behaving rather strange these days;sketchy ethics,confused morals;tagged with a plagued artificial intelligence, and people go WTF?
Facebook was launched in 2004.8 Members could create their own personal profile — complete with a profile photo and public photo albums, videos, and notes. In 2006, Facebook was opened to all members of the general public,with the only membership requirements being a valid email address and a formal agreement to the website’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Simple,sweet,awesome.
Not anymore!
Facebook is the layman,s emotional repository and here is a place where he uploads his personal image collections,his moments of happiness,occasional and rather brief emotional tantrums ,his messages to friends,family and everything else under the big fat sun.Quite naturally,Facebook as a service provider becomes liable for the security of user data;this being the backbone of the application and unless Facebook states else wise. That said, Facebook doesn’t retain ownership of your data including all images,texts and write ups,contacts,comments,chats etc.It’s a simple understanding,or rather a fiduciary relationship with the provider;a kind of “we take care of your stuff” attitude.
And then the skyfall!
Facebook comes with a real name policy;the controversy stemming from a policy, that those who have been adversely affected describe as penalizing users who are in fact using their real names which Facebook has nevertheless deemed to be “fake”.Facebook simultaneously allowed anyone to create fake yet plausible-sounding names, as well as obviously implausible-sounding names comprising word combinations that Facebook’s software fails to recognize as unlikely to be real. Facebook furthermore prohibited users from accurately representing names which according to the site have “too many words”, and prohibited initializing first names, preventing users who do so in real life from formatting their own names as they see fit.
The first strike to layman’s social personality disorder!
How do you ; or rather anyone; want people to know you socially? You want people to be comfortable and know what to call you on the first contact;this being the first part of social graces that make communication easy. This is the history of alias;the name other than the legal one of a person that can be used for many different reasons.We use aliases in family names,writers use them to maintain anonymity,actors use these for a glitch of fame and the layman uses this for feeling awesome about himself.
Broadly speaking, you can use any name you want in the US for informal activities;and Facebook definitely is one.
Facebook requires users to sign up for an account;user profiles are linked to user posts;it further syncs up to the user’s contact list and locations to develop a context within the social community; personalizing the user’s experience.It requires you to unconsciously agree to their terms of service and a privacy policy;and,the moment a profile page is created;”BANG!!”,it simply means that Facebook has confirmed acceptance of you as a subscriber in their community;and they being the service provider starts assuming a higher sense of responsibility for your assets,the assets you have uploaded on their servers.You are entrusting the service provider with your creations,digitally copyrighted creations;and you being the author holds an upper hand,atleast in this relationship.
Your relation with Facebook is fiduciary.
Facebook registrants have a fiduciary relationship with the provider,a vague legal existence;a disjuncture between their inconsistent TOS and a privacy policy;both which imposingly underwrites the definite requirement of real Names or the right to acknowledge a “KYC” documentation from the registrant.It is incoherent; a rather decorated legal jargon;and further complicating this issue in addition to unfairly targeting more vulnerable populations;is the layman’s “don’t give a damn” attitude.You can’t blame them;not everyone is a lawyer.
Facebook’s; as with many of its systems, its real name enforcement seems to rely on a combination of automation and human monitoring. Whether its AI or that old “John Smith”aka the policy preacher on the desk;no social media platform in the world has the right to :
1. Suspend any user’s account on whichever terms without issuing a fair notice period.
2. Delete a user’s page including contents that they rightfully own.
3.Demand a KYC document;hours,days,months or years; after a legally binding contract was established,which in this case is Facebook,s acceptance of you as a user.
So,what happens when your account is blocked?Here is when the impulsive becomes dangerous.You are asked to produce a Government ID for verification of your real name.Facebook’s user reinstatement notice flashes momentarily on screen, suggests that that a copy of the User’s ID be uploaded and which they promise will be stored “securely” in their servers for 24 hours until the issued is resolved. In contradiction,it’s TOS policy suggests that the copy of ID will be deleted after 30 days;and a rather contradicting statement on their Law enforcement policy suggests that the information is retained for 90 days.
Facebook’s Artificial intelligent bots are clear about one thing ;Over rate the word “secure”,and they are persistent in collecting every single piece of identity information;your name,your friend’s names,your email,your financial info(chances are that you are an ad subscriber) and now your government ID’s.Great! Now the scammers know exactly where to go for their leads!Have you ever gotten perplexed by those IRS scam calls from unidentified parts of the planet?They seem to know everything;including your dog’s name.How on earth is that possible?Well,we have the answer now.
On what legal grounds can an AI platform demand KYC documentations?Where are the user’s rights?At Men of Persia,we have been struggling to find answers to ten simple questions; which aims to solve a rather complex problem on social media; ”Who is behind the desk?”.
Here it goes:
- Is the identity of the registrant relevant to the verification of the user; where said users acceptance,communications, profile data and IP’s are used ;to establish a probable cause for the issuance of a verified membership?
- What is the company’s defined purpose of collecting KYC or identity documents?
- Which law requires the user to provide the service provider with the identity information?
- Who or what controls the data?Is it a real human or a bloody bot?
- Why aren’t the KYC policies attached with the request for identity ?
- How will the KYC documents be used by the service provider?
- What happens if the user refuses to give the identification to the service provider for safety reasons?
- At what customer service number should the complainant contact the service provider in order to verify purposeful usage of his KYC documentation?
- What proof shall be submitted by the service provider to ensure that the data has not been digitally transmitted to a third party for verification?
- And finally,do “BOTS” have rights ?
Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Privacy act of 1974
The Privacy Act of 1974 protects personal information by preventing unauthorized disclosure of any private information;given circumstances that individuals have the right to review this information, request corrections, and be informed of any disclosures. The Freedom of Information Act facilitates these processes.Now when you don’t know whom you are dealing with on the other end;whether it’s John Smith or the Bot,or even worse,Mark himself;how are your rights established legally?
In two reports to Congress (1998, 2000),it was discovered that most sites falling outside of the jurisdiction of the established right of privacy laws do not adequately inform consumers about collection practices, nor do the majority of sites adequately protect the privacy of visitors’ personal information. It appears that the voluntary regime is insufficient, and the prospect of further right of privacy legislation in the area of access to personal information is very real.
Ever heard of Stop and identity statute?
Stop and identify” statutes are statutory laws in the United States that authorize “LAW ENFORCERS” to legally obtain identification of someone whom they reasonably suspect of having committed a crime. If there is no reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed, an individual is “NOT” required to provide identification, even in “Stop and ID” states.And this “HAS” to be done in person.You surely don’t need to give a damn if a law enforcer named Slael’ylnue sends you an email demanding your photo ID.The whole point is,when the law can’t do this,how can a bot!
Confirm your identity only upon confirming the inquirer’s identity.If Green Bot is the inquirer,ask “it” for the last four digits of “it’s” SSN!
Numerous complaints raised by Facebook users in the previous years suggest that their accounts remain suspended even after submission of KYC documentations.At Men of Persia, we are in a pursuit to identify corrective methods ;adoptive,administered and registered in practice by social service providers;in order to assure protection of identity of registrants.Join us for the cause.
P.S.: We are on Facebook.None asked us for identities yet.We are still waiting !
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