Facebook, MySpace, Digg and other social networking sites have been pinched too personal to share information with advertisers, through which ... it was possible to recognize individual sailors.
An article published by The Wall Street Journal at the end of the week just passed has generated a new wave of indignation in the network. The newspaper said it "tweaked" some of the most important social network to share with third-party advertising agencies currently logged on user name or its identification.
The clear privacy violation occurred when the visitor clicks on banner ads through which you sustain these services.
The practice allows agencies to track and accurately identify the individual sailors, in an Orwellian scenario of memory, of course, will enhance the attractiveness of alternative social models.
Were it not for the trading strategy, clearly unethical in itself, the behavior seems particularly unfair to the users because the various agreements to protect the privacy offered by these services ensure that no personal data will be communicated to third parties without the specific consent.
The original piece reveals the names of those involved: there are Facebook and MySpace, but also LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga, and Digg. Even Twitter is completely foreign to the facts: the fact chirping track the clicks made between the various pages of the site, although such information is then shared with third parties.
The behavior was more serious than Facebook: while other sites mainly sent information about the displayed page, the most popular social network transmitting the user name and ID of the current user.
As for "buyers" instead, the article reveals the involvement, among others, DoubleClick, owned by Google, Yahoo! and Right Media. The agencies, however, have denied being aware of the detail and that, consequently, none of the personal information submitted has never been used or stored.
Get hold of these details is certainly very profitable for companies specializing in contextual advertising, because, knowing the identity of the various users, it becomes possible to show their ads more relevant in light of the interests. Read: women and cars for men, women clothing, consumer electronics for kids and so on.
MySpace, Hi5, Digg, LiveJournal, Xanga, and defended themselves by explaining that, since usernames are generally used by members of fancy strings, taleinformazione can not be considered "personal" or in any way relevant.
Facebook and MySpace, by contrast, said they had promptly stopped the activities after the scoop of The Wall Street Journal. It is difficult to understand how many sailors have already been identified in the meantime, and, above all, as this would be continued for "smuggling" of personal data if the business daily had failed to bring the matter into the spotlight: the practice had in fact been discovered for the first time by a group of researchers even in August last year.
See Pictures and Read more : Social networks smuggling confidential information
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