Network Protocol Design

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Admin
Network Protocol Design

Network Protocol Design

On June 10, 2011 EPIC ( Electronic Privacy Information Center) filed a consumer fraud complaint with the FTC against Facebook alleging Facebook collects and generates biometric profiling data from face photos without explicit user consent, and fails to provide a meaningful way to opt-out of collection, or request deletion of such data.

Central to EPIC’s case is an alleged pattern of a general lack of transparency about the purpose and nature of the technology behind Facebook’s photo tagging system. On July 26, 2011, in response to an inquiry by Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, Facebook announced it will implement "Tag Suggest Ads", designed to give users a quick link to opt out of tagging from their privacy settings. Nevertheless, EPIC’s Facebook allegations, if true, are indicative of a general industry trend where platform operators provide some kind of initial privacy choice, but meaningful control diminishes with the number of applications and services used. A privacy law or protocol might be the best way to address this issue.

Despite Voluntary Industry Efforts at More Transparency and Accountability, Social Networking and Mobile Applications are not Effectively Regulated

Without some kind of binding technological control, Apps may perform covert procedures to collect and transmit information with a user being unaware or only partially aware of the context their information is being collected and used. Currently the only real measure of technological control is the amount of freedom given to application developers.