There’s No Such Thing as Private Data

I hope most people have learned this lesson but I’m sure some have not: there’s no such thing as private data if you don’t entirely control the server that data resides on. This lesson should hold especially true for those who use Facebook as it appears that company is more than willing to throw privacy to the wind in the name of making a buck (and don’t get me wrong I have no issue with that, it’s a service that is free to me and I decide how much personal information to give them). Facebook is now giving Politico access to a lot of previously private data:

A partnership between Facebook and Politico announced today is one of the more far-reaching efforts. It will consist of sentiment analysis reports and voting-age user surveys, accompanied by stories by Politico reporters.

Most notably, the Facebook-Politico data set will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments.

Politico is going to have a field day with the politically oriented posts I throw up on Facebook.