All your face are belong to us: Facebook and the unreasonable expectation of privacy

Thank you very much for the kind words.

I take the view that Facebook is at least as risky as Gmail, because of its messaging system. This quote is taken from the Facebook privacy policy:

"When you use Facebook, you may set up your personal profile, form relationships, send messages, perform searches and queries, form groups, set up events, add applications, and transmit information through various channels. We collect this information so that we can provide you the service and offer personalized features."

So, if a user was using the Facebook messaging (either its email-style or its instant messaging systems) in place of Gmail to converse with another user, those conversations are compromised.

As for the other activities on Facebook, I am reminded of a Department of Justice presentation that I attended several years ago where a Drug Enforcement Administration officer told us that they obtained information of the items that drug dealers were laundering money on by looking at photos on Myspace. Unfortunately, I can't find any reference to it on the Net.

I am also reminded of people who have been tagged in Facebook photographs smoking marijuana. Fellow Singaporeans, be informed: this is evidence of an offence that is punishable in Singapore with up to 10 years imprisonment - even if the drugs were consumed overseas: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/522243.stm

-- JasonChan - 11 Dec 2008