“The European Commission has warned EU citizens that they should close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services, finding that current Safe Harbour legislation does not protect citizen’s data,” Samuel Gibbs reports for The Guardian.
“The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard Schima in a case brought by privacy campaigner Maximilian Schrems, looking at whether the data of EU citizens should be considered safe if sent to the US in a post-Snowden revelation landscape,” Gibbs reports. “‘You might consider closing your Facebook account, if you have one,’ Schima told attorney general Yves Bot in a hearing of the case at the European court of justice in Luxembourg.”
“The case, dubbed ‘the Facebook data privacy case,’ concerns the current Safe Harbour framework, which covers the transmission of EU citizens’ data across the Atlantic to the US. Without the framework, it is against EU law to transmit private data outside of the EU. The case collects complaints lodged against Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Microsoft-owned Skype and Yahoo,” Gibbs reports. “The case argues that the US government’s Prism data collection programme, revealed by Edward Snowden in the NSA files, which sees EU citizens’ data held by US companies passed on to US intelligence agencies, breaches the EU’s Data Protection Directive ‘adequacy’ standard for privacy protection, meaning that the Safe Harbour framework no longer applies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sound advice for anyone, not just those in the EU. Beyond the privacy aspect, Facebook is Creepster Central. It’s a Narcissists’ Paradise. In general, yuck.
Related articles:
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are getting even creepier – December 9, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
How to hide Twitter, Facebook buttons in iOS 8 sharing panel – October 2, 2014
Facebook’s scary Messenger app highlights iOS security vs. Android security – August 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
Facebook can be addictive.
I’ve tried to quit it a couple of times but end up back on it.
Even though I know I shouldn’t be on it, there are aspects of connecting with old friends that I do like.
Get a life
Communicating with old friends IS having a life. Apparently you don’t have any? 😉
Ah, communicating with old friends…
Let’s see now… Telephone, email, facetime and imagine this one: RealTime face to face time..you know, having real time personal dialog, conversation, response and attentive interaction as such…
I think it’s virtually a no brainer.
Unfortunately calling people, while nice, inevitably ends up being more time on the phone than often desirable, in the pursuit of politeness. Keeping up with people sometimes does not require voluminous amounts of direct verbal pleasantries. E-mail is virtually the same as posting on Facebook. I applaud the fact you have lots of time available to indulge more personal contact. A lot of us don’t yet like to remain in some form of contact.
“Unfortunately calling people, while nice, inevitably ends up being more time on the phone than often desirable, in the pursuit of politeness. Keeping up with people sometimes does not require voluminous amounts of direct verbal pleasantries.”
Nothing like an old friend to be on ceremonies with or be polite with out of ” necessity, huh blood ? 😉
“E-mail is virtually the same as posting on Facebook”.
And just as private and personal… Yeah right…
“I applaud the fact you have lots of time available to indulge more personal contact. A lot of us don’t yet like to remain in some form of contact.”
It’s called living a virtual free life…😎
I never call anyone, I only call customers and businesses. I text people. Texts and calls are very intrusive and demand immediate attention. A simple Facebook message is more of an at-your-convenience style communication and not as 1990’s as email.
Different strokes.
Not everyone stays put where they are born. None of my friends from prior to 2013 live in the same state as me.
My Facebook data: Educated at the Xaivier Institute For Gifted Children, I live on the island of Madripor.
Similarly, NEVER do I give out my actual birthday or (of course) direct email address online. Providing either is inviting trouble.
I don’t actively go on my Facebook, I just check it when I get a private message or if someone posts on my wall, on average not often at all. I might post something I’m passionate about on my wall a few times a year.
The risk is more for people who post ten times a day about their entire lives. (Who gives a shit anyway, nobody. Even you won’t go back and read them yourself. Not to mention a study said that if nobody sees your post within a brief period of time it’ll likely never be seen by anyone (except maybe the NSA).)
But not having one is kind of like not having an email address. It’s the most common way distant friends keep in touch, like it or not. I was invited to be in an old high school friend’s wedding last year, for example.
I guess the reasons I was holding onto mine is just as a public “here’s how to reach me” type thing for people I’m not close enough with to text or call.
So what is the alternative?
Every single advertisement in an opportunity to spy and collect personal data. The whole internet is “infected” You would have to stop using the web if you wanted to maintain privacy.
I am not saying there isn’t a problem. I am saying though there isn’t a solution. If you thing dropping Facebook is going to make your life better, it’s kind of delusional.
I love Facebook. Everything I do, every second of the day I post and upload Pictures. From Massive Poopee 💩 to videos of me belching for minutes on end 🙊 taking pictures of everything I eat, drink and just walking around all over the place. Yeah Facebook is just awesome!!! 😛
the last facebook’s keynote just showed how pathetic and clueless this company is… and just evil as google. FY FB
Facebook addiction borders on narcissistic personality disorder.
Everyone uses Facebook so quitting it altogether isn’t always viable.
I’ve got a Facebook account but it hasn’t been updated since 2011. Nobody can post on my wall, tag my in pictures, or anything like that.
I respond to event invitations and that’s IT! It’s refreshing to have lunch with friends and hear what’s going on in their life from themselves.
I’ve been testing out browser extensions from Disconnect.me, and so far I’m impressed. Their Safari extensions are very solid and seriously block tracking:
– Facebook Disconnect
– Google Disconnect
– Twitter Disconnect
For Firefox, they offer a few add-ons:
– Disconnect
– Disconnect Search
– Twitter Disconnect
For the Chromium family, they offer:
– Facebook Disconnect
– Disconnect
– Disconnect Search
Also available: Disconnect Desktop, which works with all of the above browsers. (Although I found the app to be a bit annoying and don’t use it).
And of course there are the usual two great tracking cookie removal applications:
– Cookie (My fave)
– Cookie Stumbler (Which is clunky but a nice addition to Cookie).
Duh. Screw Facebook. Not on it.
This sort of spying is certainly to be expected as there is a so much that the “The US no longer qualifies” for but one thing this wannabe bully does qualify for is a massive karma bitch.
Warning them doesn’t seem to help, so grab the popcorn people of the free and civilized world cause it’s going to be such a bitch when it comes.
EU citizens can FEEL safe that European governments don’t spy on them only because they don’t have an Edward Snowden . . . yet.