Facebook’s Instant Personalization: It Takes FIFTEEN Steps to ” OPT-OUT “

After Facebook‘s recent changes in their privacy policies, you need to take a few steps if you don’t want your Facebook bio, education & work, hometown, likes and interests data to be publicly shared online, as well as probably sold to behavioral marketers.

1. Go to your Facebook page

2. Go to “account”

3. Go to “privacy settings”

4.  Go to “applications & websites”

5.  Go to “instant personalization pilot program” all the way at the bottom

6. UN-check the PRE-checked box: allow selected partners to …(steal all your data?)

7.  A window pops up; are you SURE?  click: CONFIRM!!

8. Go back to “applications & websites”

9. Go to “what your friends can share”

10. Uncheck each category that you don’t want your friends to share online

11. Click : Save Changes

After this, you need to block each “selected partner” on their respective Facebook page. So far, they are

12. Microsoft Docs : click “block”

13. Pandora : click “block”

14. Yelp : click “block”

15. Keep checking every day , for the rest of your life, which new “selected partner” Facebook has added to the list and block those too.

Voilà!  You have just opted out! Wasn’t that quick & easy?

Unfortunately, I believe most people won’t bother to go through all these steps, even in order to protect their privacy.

Worse, most people won’t even know how to opt-out, because the opt-out option is set up in such a complicated way.  Facebook knows this and counts on this.

Do you think it’s fair to have to go through fifteen steps in order to prevent your personal data to be sold to advertisers?

In Canada’s Privacy by Design system , the opt-in option is the default setting.

Jules Polonetsky, Director of The Future of Privacy Forum proposes more balance between consumer and business interests by improving opt-out techniques.

Both above mentioned alternatives have one thing in common: the ingredient that is missing in Facebook‘s machiavellian opt-out design, which is “respect for the consumer”.

UPDATE: EPIC and others have filed a complaint on 5/5/ 2010 with the FTC about the New Facebook Features discussed in this article.

UPDATE: After worldwide outrage about Facebook’s new Privacy Policy, Facebook caved in and made some changes:

Facebook’s New Privacy Controls as of 5/28/2010

UPDATE: One more reason to opt-out of Facebook’s instant personalisation program. Now all your “likes” might show up on your Facebook friends’ Bing search: see Facebook and Bing Do the Search Two-Step. Since I wrote the article, Facebook has added Rotten Tomatoes and Scribd to their list of instant personalization partners. 9/15/2010

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics : Robert Rothman on the New EU Controller-to-Processor Model Clauses

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

Robert Rothman, President of Privacy Associates International, (PAI ), is an expert in Cross Border Data Transfers.

The EU Commission Decision of February 5, 2010, contains new rules on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data from EU countries to processors established in third ( non-EU , and non- “adequate” )  countries. This decision comes into effect on May 15, 2010.

I asked Robert Rothman to explain the changes in the model clauses.

See also my previous post for a comprehensive coverage of the subject matter.

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics : Jay Libove on Italy v. Google

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

In this video, Jay Libove, CISSP, CIPP, an  experienced privacy professional, expresses some concerns about the recent Italian verdict against three Google executives.

For the latest update on this case, click here

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics: Cédric Laurant and the EPHR project

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

In this video, I interviewed Cédric Laurant, who is an attorney and an independent privacy consultant based in Belgium. Cédric was probably the only European to have braved the Icelandic ash clouds in order to make it to the IAPP Summit in Washington, D.C. Indeed, about 25 European speakers and a couple of hundred European attendees never got to the summit because of cancelled flights all over Europe.

Cédric is closely involved in the brand new European Privacy and Human Rights ( EPHR) project. This project is a collaboration between EPIC ( Electronic Privacy Information Center) in Washington, D.C., PI (Privacy International) in London and the CEU ( Central European University ) in Budapest.

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics -Privacy by Design in Canada

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

In this video, I interviewed Ken Anderson, Assistant Commissioner, and Estella Cohen, Issues Manager at the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s Office in Ontario, Canada.

They explain the concept of Privacy by Design and how it is implemented in Canada.

The IAPP is holding a Canada Privacy Symposium 2010 on May 26 – 28, in Toronto.

Update November 1, 2010: Privacy by Design Resolution adopted by international privacy commissioners in Jerusalem

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics: Jules Polonetsky Predicts the Future of Behavioral Advertising

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

In this video, I interviewed Jules Polonetsky, Director of The Future of Privacy Forum, on the future of behavioral advertising.

IAPP Global Privacy Summit 2010 – Hot Topics: Convergence, by Jay Libove, CISSP, CIPP

At the recent IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., many hot topics were addressed:

Privacy by Design, Behavioral Advertising, the new EU Cookie Consent Law, the Smart Power Grid, the Cloud, Web 2.0, the new EU Model Clause Agreements, Controllers, Processors and Sub-Processors, the recent Google convictions, to name just a few.

I interviewed a few prominent privacy professionals, attending and/or presenting at the summit on some of the important issues of the day.

In this video-interview, Jay Libove, CISSP, CIPP, talks about the importance of convergence of all corporate departments in order to increase efficiency.

E-Discovery Challenges in China

by Kevin Lo

A complicated international anti-dumping case brought several U.S. lawyers and a team of e-discovery experts to a large industrial town in northeast China. They had come to interview senior executives and conduct a search of paper and electronic records at a major pharmaceutical company.

During negotiations for the trip, the company said the team was more than welcome to speak with anyone they wished to meet and that access to records would be granted willingly. What transpired once the team arrived in China, however, was considerably different.

To begin with, their hosts seemed disinclined to get down to business. On the first day, they insisted on giving a tour of the large plant. It was long and far too detailed for the team’s interests. Having everything translated only added to the ordeal.

After the tour ended, the hosts suggested everyone go to lunch. The lead lawyer politely declined, despite the urging of her translator to accept. The lawyer asked, instead, to begin the discovery process. “I would like to begin by taking a copy of your hard drive,” she said to the company’s CEO.

Although the CEO didn’t say no outright, it was obvious this request made him quite upset. Rather than discuss the matter further, he changed the subject back to the luncheon invitation. “We can eat and have something to drink and get to know each other,” he said.

“He’s got something to hide,” one of the lawyers said to his colleagues. Although he had made this observation in an aside, it was loud enough for the CEO’s translator to hear.

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