FTC To Monitor MySpace And/Or Empty Space For 20 Years

Privacy

from the why-you-write-broad-privacy-policies dept

We’ve discussed many times that the main problem with privacy policies is that their very nature encourages companies to actually do less to care about your privacy. That is, the only way a company gets in trouble with their privacy policy is if they don’t obey their own privacy policy. Thus, it’s much smarter to create a privacy policy that effectively says that the company can do whatever it wants and doesn’t have to respect users’ privacy. In that way, it’s much harder to actually violate someone’s privacy. Considering that no one actually reads these privacy policies (and for the few who do, no one understands them) means that it’s even easier to make that work. Still, however, some companies go beyond their own privacy policies, and the FTC has to step in and slap them around. The latest… is MySpace.

Yes, MySpace. That also-ran social networking site that no one uses any more has come to an agreement with the FTC over violating its own privacy policy. Specifically, it appears that MySpace made it possible for advertisers to associate identities with advertisements so that advertisers could build a direct profile of an individual. Of course, it doesn’t appear that anyone actually did this. The settlement means that MySpace will undergo “regular privacy assessments” for the next 20 years. I have two thoughts on this: first, there is almost no chance that MySpace exists in 20 years. Second, I never understand this 20 year deadline on FTC deals. If, miraculously, there is still a MySpace in 2033, it can go back to skimping on its privacy protections?

Filed Under: ftc, privacy policy
Companies: myspace