The entrustment of your privacy to others

Originally published on 12 September 2014

John Gruber, of Daring Fireball fame, comments on a New York Times article about the use of Facebook for politics.

His makes an excellent, and simple, point:

Eddy Cue on stage on Tuesday: “We’re not in the business of collecting your data.”

Can you even imagine what Facebook Pay would be like?

The value of user privacy is very much underestimated by most people, and being especially so where the Internet is concerned.

One should always try to maintain a good level of discretion when providing personal details for social media based services, as it is hard to ultimately guarantee how that information will be utilised. Play the sceptic — because even with privacy policies and terms-of-use documents, the legalese from these are usually quite complicated and doesn’t provide people with an appropriate layman’s interpretation.

Facebook has always been very grey about their user privacy policies and practices. Such disrespect of personal information is troubling, and creates an atmosphere of distrust that most of its users are seemingly oblivious to…

Now, try applying this level of grey-ness to a scenario where Facebook takes on the role of a payment processor.

Are you prepared to entrust them with access to your financials?

(In other words: The answer to this question shouldn’t be any different where your user privacy is concerned.)

Kinny tweets aviation, social media and technology on Twitter.