Texas Woman Sues Facebook for Privacy Violations

Stacy Lunsford
November 5, 2009
Sociology 313-003
Instructor: Colin Olson
Blog Post #6
Texas Woman Sues Facebook for Privacy Violations

A woman from Texas is suing Facebook and Blockbuster for posting too much information about her on the web. Cathryn Harris found out after the fact that Facebook added a note containing her full name and the name of the movie she had just rented at Blockbuster. Harris made the discovery last year when she rented the film “The Jewel of the Nile”. She said that an alert appeared on her Facebook profile which detailed the transaction. Harris decided to file two lawsuits, one against Blockbuster and the other against Facebook. The suit claims a partnership between the two companies allowed Blockbuster to send customers movie rental habits to Facebook without fair opportunity to opt out. Facebook's controversial Beacon system is a tracking flag that follows people across network sites and reports back to Facebook on people's activities. For advertisers its a way to learn more about the individual. After a public outcry in 2007, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, publicly apologized for the Beacon system saying that the problem was with their opt in opt out option. Facebook policy has now changed, but Harris says that Beacon is a violation of the Video Privacy Protection Act. This is a law that prevents companies from disclosing info about customers rental habits without their knowledge, the suit says that Beacon still transfers info, but doesn't display it. Facebook is settling a similar California lawsuit and has agreed to discontinue the Beacon system. The outcome of the lawsuit in California will decide what Harris will do concerning her lawsuit.

Citation: http://www.foxnews/printer_friendly_story.com

I think that this is a form of social control because of the actions between Blockbuster and Facebook. Neither of these companies clearly had Cathryn Harris's consent about if she wanted her info on Facebook with her full name and movie rental history. I do think that companies shouldn't automatically opt you in, I think that people should opt in on their own. People shouldn't have to ask every company that they deal with if they need to opt out of something when they didn't choose to opt in themselves. This is just another form of control.