The FBI's lawyers claim that keep a high-resolution image of its official seal violates federal code banning the manufacture, sale or possession of items bearing the insignia of federal offices. The New York Times explains Wikipedia's response, which is essentially "oh shut up FBI." The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the F.B.I.'s letter is largely about keeping people from flashing fake badges or profiting from the use of the seal, and not about posting images on noncommercial Web sites. Many sites, including the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, display the seal. You legal nerds out there might enjoy a brisk, pleasant read of Wikimedia general counsel Mike Godwin's entire letter to these FBI trolls. Godwin, a sassy fellow, accuses the FBI of deliberately misrepresenting the law: Finally, while I sympathize with your footnoted desire to claim that "the plain meaning" of the statute supports your broad view of Section 701's scope, we note that you specifically removed the language that communicates the plain meaning of "other insignia." In context, this seems an ironic stroke. The FBI is definitely going to raid their offices, like, tonight. Send an email to Jim Newell, the author of this post, at newell@gawker.com.FBI Demands Its Logo Be Removed From Wikipedia
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
FBI Demands Its Logo Be Removed From Wikipedia
Thursday, April 22, 2010
EFF: How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Instant Personalization
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/how-opt-out-facebook-s-instant-personali...
APRIL 22ND, 2010 Yesterday, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would "personalize your experience using your public Facebook information." The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit "Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked." Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site. More specifically, these sites "may access any information you have made visible to Everyone ... as well as your publicly available information. This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages." On Monday, Facebook announced a transition where a "new type of Facebook Page" will make the "current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests sections of your profile" publicly available after you go through the transition tool (or those items will be deleted). By default, the "Allow" checkbox for Instant Personalization is checked on your privacy settings. If you don't want the websites that you or your Facebook friends visit to know your information, you must opt out. Since this process is a bit complicated, we have made a quick video showing step by step how to do so. Simply unchecking the "Allow" box is not sufficient. As Facebook explains, "if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application." Nor can you go to the Block Applicationssetting to block these partner sites. This setting is only for showing which applications and sites are blocked, and unblocking them. So, to opt out of this fully, you also need to go each page for Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelpand push the Block Application button. If Facebook adds another partner site to the program, you will need to block that as well, so be sure to check back often. You may also want to review the settings for what friends can share and sharing your profileinformation. Related Issues: Social Networks
How to Opt Out of Facebook’s Instant Personalization
Deeplink by Kurt Opsahl 
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
EFF: Facebook Further Reduces Your Control Over Personal Information
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-further-reduces-control-over-pe...
APRIL 19TH, 2010 Once upon a time, Facebook could be used simply to share your interests and information with a select small community of your own choosing. As Facebook's privacy policy once promised, "No personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the Web Site who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings." How times have changed. Today, Facebook removed its users' ability to control who can see their own interests and personal information. Certain parts of users' profiles, "including your current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests" will now be transformed into "connections," meaning that they will be shared publicly. If you don't want these parts of your profile to be made public, your only option is to delete them. The example Facebook uses in its announcement is a page for "Cooking." Previously, you could list "cooking" as an activity you liked on your profile, but your name would not be added to any formal "Cooking" page. (Under the old system, you could become a "fan" of cooking if you wanted). But now, the new Cooking page will publicly display all of the millions of people who list cooking as an activity. Cooking is not very controversial or privacy-sensitive, and thus makes for a good example from Facebook's perspective. Who would want to conceal their interest in cooking? Of course, the new program will also create public lists for controversial issues, such as an interest in abortion rights, gay marriage, marijuana, tea parties and so on. But even for an innocuous interest like cooking, it’s not clear how this change is meant to benefit Facebook's users. An ordinary human is not going to look through the list of Facebook's millions of cooking fans. It's far too large. Only data miners and targeted advertisers have the time and inclination to delve that deeply. There is one loophole — tell Facebook you're under 18. Under Facebook's policy for minors, your interests would only be visible for friends and family and verified networks. You would not be publicly listed on these new connection pages. However, this only works as you set up a new account. The new connections features benefit Facebook and its business partners, with little benefit to you. But what are you going to do about it? Facebook has consistently ignored demands from its users to create an easy "exit plan" for migrating their personal data to another social networking website, even as it has continued — one small privacy policy update after another — to reduce its users' control over their information. The answer: Let Facebook hear your frustration. Last December, when Facebook announced a new round of privacy degradations, it provoked a potent combination of public outrage, legal threats, and government investigations. In response, Facebook listened to some criticism and walked-back a few of its changes. Now it will allow users to adjust the visibility of information in their profiles, such as hiding your friend list from other friends. If you want Facebook to walk back these new changes too, let them know how you feel. Related Issues: Privacy, Social Networks Related Cases: FOIA: Social Networking MonitoringFacebook Further Reduces Your Control Over Personal Information
Commentary by Kurt Opsahl