5 ms·

Privacy Fail: Klout Has Gone Too Far

20 points by pier0 15y ago

sp332 15y ago
This is the result of open data, or the semantic web, or whatever you want to call it. Anyone can look at your public info on the web, do some simple math, and get this same info. Facebook encourages this through their "social graph" APIs, and twitter has been used this way by researchers for years. So if anyone wants to do this to you, they can. Are you going to opt-out of every service that wants to look at your twitter account?
- rvschuilenburg 15y ago
  I was thinking the same. What is is that klout does here, that is wrong? If the post is public on Facebook, what can you do about it?
  - dfxm12 15y ago
    What the author says is wrong is the fact that you can't opt-out of this service, and that it is too difficult to determine what is and isn't publicly available on social networking sites. The author has a point, but he's just going in the wrong direction (and should be focusing more on twitter and Facebook and less on Klout). He should be arguing in favor of more transparent privacy options, opt-in instead of opt-out by default, and more secure defaults in social networking rather than saying someone is doing something wrong with publicly available info.
    - jamesbritt 15y ago
      The author has a point, but he's just going in the wrong direction (and should be focusing more on twitter and Facebook and less on Klout). He should be holding up Klout and saying, "See, this is what's wrong with Facebook." But this seems to be a hard message to convey. People want to like and use Facebook, and would rather blame a site like Klout than face the truth about what liking and using Facebook actually means. To me it's like walking down the street naked and then complaining about how cameras work because people are able to take pictures. Facebook + time = sadness.
wccrawford 15y ago
This is obviously wrong, and I'm surprised Klout thought it was okay. "UPDATE: I just heard from another social media professional that she has found a Klout profile for her son, who is 13 years old. In other words, Klout is creating profiles and assigning scores to minors." And that is probably illegal in many countries. I expect lawsuits.
- sp332 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure it's part of the ToS you agree to when you sign up to FB or Twitter. Since minors can't use those services without parental permission anyway (because they can't agree to the ToS by themselves), I think the parents ought to be aware that they are giving FB & Twitter permission to do this.
  - gldalmaso 15y ago
    The world seems to be turning into a messed up place where we willfully trade off our privacy for sociability. Should we just accept that it is ok for corporations to trade our info willy-nilly while all we want to do is be social on the web? How long and how far will this go on? Until every other bit of our digital life is tracked, profiled and sold? When did we stop being consumers and became products? Will there ever be a B2B transaction with our faces next to a barcode? I think we need to get a grip before we start finding this all too normal.
    - viscanti 15y ago
      Privacy rights will be respected when people are actually willing to pay social online. Social networking sites (and almost every website in general) is designed to make money. This is especially true at large scales, like Facebook and Twitter. They aren't charities designed to enhance our lives, they're businesses. Users aren't willing to pay to use the sites, so they have to monazite differently. Part of that is collecting lots of information about you. It's really pretty easy to not share private things. You aren't required to share anything private, and you can still get the full value out of being social online.

20 points by pier0 15y ago

sp332 15y ago

This is the result of open data, or the semantic web, or whatever you want to call it. Anyone can look at your public info on the web, do some simple math, and get this same info. Facebook encourages this through their "social graph" APIs, and twitter has been used this way by researchers for years. So if anyone wants to do this to you, they can. Are you going to opt-out of every service that wants to look at your twitter account?

rvschuilenburg 15y ago
I was thinking the same. What is is that klout does here, that is wrong? If the post is public on Facebook, what can you do about it?
- dfxm12 15y ago
  What the author says is wrong is the fact that you can't opt-out of this service, and that it is too difficult to determine what is and isn't publicly available on social networking sites. The author has a point, but he's just going in the wrong direction (and should be focusing more on twitter and Facebook and less on Klout). He should be arguing in favor of more transparent privacy options, opt-in instead of opt-out by default, and more secure defaults in social networking rather than saying someone is doing something wrong with publicly available info.
  - jamesbritt 15y ago
    The author has a point, but he's just going in the wrong direction (and should be focusing more on twitter and Facebook and less on Klout). He should be holding up Klout and saying, "See, this is what's wrong with Facebook." But this seems to be a hard message to convey. People want to like and use Facebook, and would rather blame a site like Klout than face the truth about what liking and using Facebook actually means. To me it's like walking down the street naked and then complaining about how cameras work because people are able to take pictures. Facebook + time = sadness.

wccrawford 15y ago

This is obviously wrong, and I'm surprised Klout thought it was okay. "UPDATE: I just heard from another social media professional that she has found a Klout profile for her son, who is 13 years old. In other words, Klout is creating profiles and assigning scores to minors." And that is probably illegal in many countries. I expect lawsuits.

sp332 15y ago
I'm pretty sure it's part of the ToS you agree to when you sign up to FB or Twitter. Since minors can't use those services without parental permission anyway (because they can't agree to the ToS by themselves), I think the parents ought to be aware that they are giving FB & Twitter permission to do this.
- gldalmaso 15y ago
  The world seems to be turning into a messed up place where we willfully trade off our privacy for sociability. Should we just accept that it is ok for corporations to trade our info willy-nilly while all we want to do is be social on the web? How long and how far will this go on? Until every other bit of our digital life is tracked, profiled and sold? When did we stop being consumers and became products? Will there ever be a B2B transaction with our faces next to a barcode? I think we need to get a grip before we start finding this all too normal.
  - viscanti 15y ago
    Privacy rights will be respected when people are actually willing to pay social online. Social networking sites (and almost every website in general) is designed to make money. This is especially true at large scales, like Facebook and Twitter. They aren't charities designed to enhance our lives, they're businesses. Users aren't willing to pay to use the sites, so they have to monazite differently. Part of that is collecting lots of information about you. It's really pretty easy to not share private things. You aren't required to share anything private, and you can still get the full value out of being social online.