An Interest In:
Web News this Week
- April 2, 2024
- April 1, 2024
- March 31, 2024
- March 30, 2024
- March 29, 2024
- March 28, 2024
- March 27, 2024
Some of Our Sources
- Mashable
- Simplebits
- TutsPlus - Design
- Vandelay Design
- Fuel Your Creativity
- Web Design Ledger
- Spyre Studios
- Web Resource Source
- Android Dissected
- The Verge
Help Webnuz
Referal links:
March 15, 2011 04:40 am PDT
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/3GXgG_QaZnI/etsys-privacy-valdez.html
Etsy's privacy Valdez: opt-out policy exposes users' real names and purchase histories
A recent, unannounced change to Etsy's privacy policy has created an avalanche of embarrassing disclosures for Etsy shoppers. Etsy hoped to make its service more Facebook-like and sociable, so it began to expose buyers' and sellers' real names, reviews,favorites and shopping histories. Among other things, this move has caused peoples' shopping preferences and histories to be linked to their real names in Google searches; according to one account, a shopper's sex-toy purchase appears on a Google search for her name "right after her online resumes." Critics of Etsy's new policy seem to have a thing for searching for artisan dildos, but the point is pretty clear. Buyers have no idea that their purchases are being exposed, and they don't need to be embarrassing purchases to cause problems. We're reminded of the fallout from Facebook Beacon, the tool that allowed Facebook to show users' off-Facebook activities and purchases without their consent or knowledge. Facebook offered an opt-out for the service, but the damage was already done. Facebook eventually faced an FTC complaint and a class-action lawsuit--Facebook settled the suit in 2009 by shutting down the service and donating $9.5 million to an organization that fights for online privacy. With this move, Etsy has hopped onto the Beacon roller coaster, and it may be too late to get off. By automatically opting in every user ever registered to the new system, Etsy is likely just one especially outraged user away from facing its own set of lawsuits and FTC investigations. Etsy users irked after buyers, purchases exposed to the world (Thanks, Sethum, via Submitterator!) Facebook privacy meltdown: company removed opt-out prior to launch ... How to opt-out of Verizon's personal info-sharing scheme - Boing Boing Spokeo, personal data aggregators, and your privacy rights: Xeni ... Foursquare cared a lot more about $20M than your privacy - Boing Boing Six reasons to hate Facebook's new anti-privacy system ... EFF, AT&T and Google all on the same side of this privacy fight ......
Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/3GXgG_QaZnI/etsys-privacy-valdez.html
Share this article:
Tweet
View Full Article
