Facebook privacy concerns resurface
In a world where the intranet exists, privacy concerns come and go — and then come back in a new way each time they are discussed. This week, Facebook has fallen under fire after two gay choir students reportedly posted on their private Facebook [or so they thought] pages that they were homosexual; and attempted to join a choir group to gain access to their rehearsal schedule only to be outed to the entire school after the group notified other studetns.
Bobbi Duncan, and Taylor McCormick say they placed highly restrictive privacy controls on the information but were unintentionally outed after they joined their school choir group; by the band leader himself.
The president of the chorus, a student organization at the University of Texas campus here, had added Ms. Duncan and Mr. McCormick to the choir’s Facebook group. The president didn’t know the software would automatically tell their Facebook friends that they were now members of the chorus.
The two students were casualties of a privacy loophole on Facebook—the fact that anyone can be added to a group by a friend without their approval. As a result, the two lost control over their secrets, even though both were sophisticated users who had attempted to use Facebook’s privacy settings to shield some of their activities from their parents.
Related articles
- Facebook Privacy Settings Lead To The Outing Of Sensitive Secrets (allfacebook.com)
- Loophole In Facebook Privacy Policy Unintentionally Outs LGBT Students (queerty.com)
- Facebook’s Wonky Privacy Controls Now Outing LGBT Youth Without Their Consent (betabeat.com)
- Internet Privacy Does Not Exist (outsidethebeltway.com)
- Facebook Accidentally “Outs” Gay Kids to Their Parents (blogs.sfweekly.com)
- Gay Students’ Outing Highlights Privacy Flaws in Facebook Groups (webpronews.com)
