William Shatner... Then you are not welcome.

Why is this on /. ???

Tell that to the hundreds that have died in Turkey as a result of his organizations plans in car bombings.Tell that to the thousands of people and families that lost loved ones because of the trade center. Tell that to the TENS OF THOUSANDS of fellow innocent muslims he (and his organization at his direction) killed for his own egotistical views. Tell that to the children who are brainwashed into believing this ultra conservative religious mindset so they can be used for the sole purpose of being "martyrs" (pawns) and blowing themselves up in the streets killing more innocent civilians. There are plenty of reasons to dislike the US. But as far as Bin Laden goes, this guy should have been turned inside out and beaten publicly. His porn stash going public should be only the start to the humiliation of him and everything and everyone who sides with him.


Oh and by the way, one of the ways his organization funded itself (Aside from selling drugs) was through enslaving women and forcing them to make pornographic material so it could be sold.

From Facebooks Terms of service:
Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.


As far as who the information is sold to- who cares? Your data has been bought, sold, traded, bargained and raped LONG before facebook even came into existence. Its just a little easier to send a zip file online than a few stacks of paper over snail mail. The moment you opened up a credit card, bought a house, went to school, went to college, were born, died- all that information exists in a public domain and has been bought up, parsed compiled and there exists a digital file somewhere of "you" It may or may not have your name, but you can bet it has all the other data on it. Now, is it right? Depends. If you have submitted data to the "public sphere" then you have it coming to you. I myself, don't mind if the data I conciously provide is used. All they have is a name, an email address (which I use specific for social networking) my age and geographic location. Beyond that they may be able to piece together some complicated logic scrips to pull out some of my likes and dislikes (oh, and yes, facebook sells that tidbit of data when you click on something saying you like pickels, or hate cats- why wouldn't they?).

I'm going to pause on that tantrum (as I expect a plethora of responses and picking out of lines i've written for rebuttal and move to an alternate way to look at things:


What if the ad's you saw online were suddenly realevant to you? You got ads for upcoming software releases, music events for bands I actually want to know about, cheap computer parts or even low air fares to my favorite destinations. All of a sudden I am being given marketing data that I actually might be interested in. Like turning on the TV and having really awesom comercials for products I give a rats ass about. At the end of the day, that is what marketing firms are doing here. They are not taking your data so they can make sure the only ads you get are for pampers diapers and coupons for grade C tuna fish that expired last year.

Anyway, enough of my playing devils advocate. I am a champion of privacy- but I also understand why and how my data is shared- I just make a point to control what data I put out into the world. Others should take this mindset too.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again (even though it's not popular), but no one is holding a gun to anyone's head and telling them to use facebook "or else." They can only use the personal info you give them- and rightly so. They make it glaringly obvious that is how they make their money. Government oversight in this case will only lead to more laws. More laws will lead to less internet(personal) freedom. After all, the Internet is a privilege not a right (and should remain as such).

Or to the rest of the SSL using world: CommodeHacker.

(java + fun) < (fun)

Yeah really- I mean isn't having 2 wives punishment enough?

Quite frankly, if you don't want the information shared- you shouldn't put it out there to begin with. Facebook should be able to sell of any data it wishes provided users know they are giving up that information freely. If they don't read the TOS the fault should be on them.

They should take a look at google's big querry.

... Seems they just get better with age!

He should have have chosen a judge, not a jury. My guess is a very different outcome would have come from a judge as opposed to a sympathetic Jury to someone losing their job. I hope his appeal wins in either case.

A couple years ago google bought a company that produces software my company uses. They almost over-night fired a vast majority of the mid-level and upper management and replaced them with 'google quality' managers (mostly master degree and doctorate holders who had very little knowledge of the product they were now managing). The absolute downfall in the quality of the support, product and resources was immediately felt. All in all, Google really needs to overhaul who and what they hire. A "strong accademic record" is not an indicator of intelligence or ability to think outside the box. It cirtianly doesn't show off management and technical skills.

Before I answer this, I need to put on my tinfoil hat... Now where did I last put that thing?

...It's a Space Station!