Facebook and attorneys general form new safety campaign

Education program will provide teens and their parents with info on managing privacy

Every time Facebook does anything, you can easily predict that there will some amount of people who immediately raise their arms up in the air to scream that their privacy is being violated. For its part, Facebook does not make the situation any easier with their notoriously complicated privacy settings. 

Despite its seeming unwillingness to make privacy on its site easy to understand, Facebook has decided to take some active steps to protect some of its most vulnerable users, teenagers, by partnering with 19 Attorneys General from around the country to launch a new consumer education program, it was revealed Monday.

The news was by announced by National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) President, and Maryland Attorney General,  Douglas F. Gansler during his Presidential Initiative Summit on “Privacy in the Digital Age” in National Harbor, Maryland.

“Teenagers and adults should know there are tools to help protect their online privacy when they go on Facebook and other digital platforms,” Gansler said. “We hope this campaign will encourage consumers to closely manage their privacy and these tools and tips will help provide a safer online experience. Of course, attorneys general will continue to actively protect consumers’ online privacy as well.”

Facebook included some details about the new education program in a blogpost Monday:

• “Ask the Safety Team Video” series: Over the past few years, Facebook said that it has been traveling around the country, teaching educators, parents and teens how to safely use its service.

"We’ve created a video series from our safety team that answers the questions we’re asked most during this events," said Facebook

• “What You Can Do to Control Your Information,” a tip sheet that offers the 10 top tools to control user information on Facebook.
• State-specific public service announcements with participating attorneys general and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.

All of these will be made available on the Facebook Safety page, each of  the Attorneys General Facebook Pages and their websites.

“At Facebook, we work hard to make sure people understand how to control their information and stay safe online. We’re always looking for new partners in that endeavor – that’s why we’re thrilled to collaborate with the National Association of Attorneys General,” Sandberg said in a statement.

“We’re grateful for Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler’s leadership on this issue, and we look forward to working with him and attorneys general around the country. Together, we hope to ensure that young people make safe, smart, and responsible choices online.”

Facebook privacy concerns

Facebook doesn't have the best reputation when it comes to protecting user privacy, and both the government and private citizens have expressed their dissatisfaction with how difficult it can be to ensure privacy on the site.

In August, the company finalized a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, in which it agreed to submit to government audits of its privacy practices every other year for the next 20 years and said it would get approval from the FTC before making changes to its privacy policies in the future.

Most of the concern that the FTC had with Facebook's policies rooted back to changes made in 2009, which automatically shared information and pictures about Facebook users, even if they previously programmed their privacy settings to shield the content. Among other things, people's profile pictures, lists of online friends and political views were suddenly available for the world to see, the FTC alleged.

Facebook also found itself in court last year  over its Sponsored Stories, in which users, who “like” a certain brand on the site, are then used to endorse that brand, sometimes without the user’s consent, and in some cases without the user's knowledge.

As part of the settlement that Facebook proposed in that case, it added addition parental controls, in which parents will be able to directly have their children opt-out of the Sponsored Stories feature once they confirm their relationship to their child. Parents would then be able to prevent the names and likenesses of their children from appearing in sponsored stories.

Users simply do not trust Facebook to respect their privacy, and for good reason. With this new education iniative, though, perhaps Facebook will begin to make privacy simpler and easier for its users.

(Image source: https://www.v3im.com)