California Bill Would Force Change to Facebook Privacy Settings
Published on: May 17, 2011
(Agoura Hills, C.A.) The Social Networking Privacy Act, or California bill SB 242, would place new regulations on Facebook and other social networking websites if it were to pass. The bill targets social online communities and would require them to eliminate personal information for child accounts should parents of the users request it. If the bill should come to pass, the parents of all individuals under the age of 18 who have accounts on sites like Facebook would have the option to request that their information be removed from the accounts used by the underage individuals under their supervision.
These websites would then need to strip out the data that parents requested to be removed within 48 hours. If the requests are not fulfilled, sites could end up facing fines up to $10,000. Parents would have access to the accounts of their children, and the bill would require privacy guidelines and settings to be set up when the user first signed up for the site. Currently, users on Facebook have to set privacy options at a later date. Many users might not ever bother to set them beyond whatever default settings were assigned to them when their account was originally created.
This has concerned state legislators like Democratic Senator Ellen Corbett (San Leandro). On May 2, she released a revised version of the bill into the state congress. She has commented on the fact that users essentially enter personal data before they’re given the option to restrict those who view that data. Supporters feel that such legislation is important to protect people from default settings that may be unwise for many purposes. For instance, the default settings on some sites allow biographical and familial information to be viewable by anyone. The same goes for photographs on many online resources. These settings remain in place unless a user takes the time to change them later on. Essentially, sites would now force their privacy settings to the maximum settings by default.
However, opponents of the bill say that it could accidentally lead to a higher level of user complacency. Since new members would be presented with decisions in regards to privacy before they even use the site, they may be less likely to pay attention. Many commentators have already complained that few users genuinely read and understand the current crop of privacy policies available to social networking website members. By presenting them with this information at a time when they may be rushing to start using the service right away, they may not take the time to read through and make wise decisions about information is supposed to be disclosed.
Users also don’t take the time to properly make decisions regarding their own privacy settings. Some feel that if these were placed so early in a client’s use of the resource, they would essentially be forced to make decisions without any knowledge about how to make them. Users would possibly not even pay attention to the preferences that they were setting. This could lead to making choices without fully understanding what they were doing. There have been concerns raised over what might happen with the accounts of children who have estranged parents.
The Facebook firm itself is not necessarily pleased with the legislation. While they have long been the source of controversy over privacy, Facebook feels that the bill is a hazard to the future of continued successful business in the state of California. How state legislators will end up voting, however, has yet to be determined. There are likely to be strong feelings on both sides of the aisle over the issue.
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