FaceBook (again)

A BBC report into data protection indicates that the Information Commissioner's Office is investigating the fact that it is difficult to clear all the data from FaceBook accounts and that deactivation is just that and this does not remove the data from FaceBook's servers.

The report says: "Users who wish to completely delete their information must, according to the automated response from Facebook's Customer Service, “log in and delete all profile content". and it goes on to say : "An individual who has deactivated their account might not find themselves motivated enough to delete information that's about them maybe on their wall or other people's site."

This needs to be read with the post below about FaceBook.

Is this paranoia? Is it a 'witch hunt' against something that has gone viral and is 'anti-establishment'? The social networks we have are in infancy and what is there today will undoubtedly not be there wearing the same clothes in the future and so it is right to worry about the ownership of the data.

At a seminar session at BETT last week I asked an assembled group of BETT visitors, mainly teachers, how many of them had opened up their FaceBook page (if they had one) or created one and had shown the students how to make the page as safe as possible. Out of the 80 or so listening to me ONE person said that they had done that.We need to teach people how to be safe. We do it for Road Safety. We spend a fortune on drugs awareness. We have not yet got to grips with personal safety in social networks ... and we need to now .

I have said these things before and feel the need to say them again !