Facebook: You Post It, We Can See It, And That’s That, by Zach Miners, PC World

http://tinyurl.com/lqylv3j

If you still think that Facebook allows you to have control over your privacy and no one is collecting your data, I have a dry well in Oklahoma that I know you’ll just love. Call me. -CCE

In fact, Facebook doesn’t think it would make sense to let users do that.

‘With most online services, there’s an understanding that when you use those services to share information, you’re also sharing information with the company providing the service,’ said Matt Scutari, manager of privacy and public policy at Facebook.

‘For users who are truly concerned with sharing their information with a particular platform, honestly, you might not want to share information with that platform,’ he said, speaking during a conference on digital privacy in Palo Alto, California, on Friday.

‘I don’t think there are many services out there who could claim they’re not using your information that you’re sharing with them for any purpose. They have to at least use that information to provide the service,’ he added.

Scutari was responding to a question from the audience about what tools, if any, Facebook might provide to people who want to post and share information but keep it from Facebook itself.

Lately, the company has been trying to improve its controls for sharing among friends. In September it introduced a ‘privacy checkup’ feature. And just this week it released a revamped privacy policy designed to be easier to use. The company also gives users information about how their data is used for advertising. But it has never offered users tools to limit what data Facebook can ingest when they share.

Data collection—what companies collect, and how it’s used—is an area of concern for Internet users in general, highlighted by some dramatic findings in a recent Pew survey. . . .