{"id":6579,"date":"2013-09-13T07:52:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T11:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=6579"},"modified":"2016-11-16T19:52:26","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T00:52:26","slug":"shoe-is-on-the-other-foot-facebooks-growing-frustration-with-the-nsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/shoe-is-on-the-other-foot-facebooks-growing-frustration-with-the-nsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoe Is On the Other Foot:  Facebook&#8217;s Growing Frustration With the NSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif\">It turns out that no one likes invasions into their privacy. Not even Facebook.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">Since the rise of social media, users have been struggling to strike a balance between sharing updates with friends and maintaining a degree of privacy. However, social media giants, such as Facebook, have made this balancing act all the more difficult with ever-changing and increasingly complex privacy policies. Privacy rights advocates have long\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/epic.org\/privacy\/facebook\/\" target=\"_blank\">bemoaned<\/a>\u00a0Facebook&#8217;s invade-first-ask-permission-later approach to users&#8217; privacy, as seen with the advent of\u00a0&#8220;Sponsored Stories&#8221; and facial recognition in photo tagging.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">Ironically enough, the shoe is suddenly on the other foot. This time\u00a0it is Facebook that is bemoaning an encroachment on its privacy. And the encroacher? Why, it&#8217;s none other than the National Security Agency (NSA). At a tech conference on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2013\/09\/11\/tech\/web\/zuckerberg-mayer-nsa-disrupt\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\">lamented<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0effects of the\u00a0NSA&#8217;s surveillance program.\u00a0Under the auspices of its surveillance program, PRISM, the US government has made\u00a0tens of thousands\u00a0of requests for information from social media companies.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">In short, Facebook does not want the government invading the privacy of its users. That&#8217;s Facebook&#8217;s job.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">And in an even sharper twist of irony, Facebook&#8217;s biggest concern with the NSA surveillance\u00a0program\u00a0is its lack of transparency. Since the information requests are related to matters of national security, companies are\u00a0prevented by gag order from sharing any information about these requests.\u00a0Ignoring the irony,\u00a0Facebook filed a lawsuit on Monday against the NSA\u00a0demanding\u00a0transparency and insisting that the\u00a0gag order be\u00a0lifted. On its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom.fb.com\/News\/710\/Facebook-Joins-Industry-in-Petitioning-Foreign-Intelligence-Surveillance-Court\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>, Facebook stated, &#8220;&#8230;today, we are joining others in the industry in petitioning the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to require the government to permit companies to disclose more information about the volume and types of national security-related orders they receive.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">Now that the shoe is on the other foot, perhaps Facebook has learned just how bad it feels to have one&#8217;s privacy invaded. Perhaps not.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">While beating back the encroachment of the NSA with one hand, Facebook has continued to exploit its users with the other. Last month, Facebook announced yet another less-than-transparent change in its privacy policy. While Facebook insists that the changes do not alter users&#8217; rights, one\u00a0<a title=\"Senator Markey on Privacy\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/12\/technology\/personaltech\/ftc-looking-into-facebook-privacy-policy.html?ref=technology&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\">US senator<\/a>\u00a0called it a &#8220;troubling shift in policy.&#8221; Many more privacy advocates stood in\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2048603\/ftc-facebook-privacy-policy-review-part-of-regular-monitoring.html\" target=\"_blank\">opposition<\/a>\u00a0to Facebook&#8217;s latest changes\u00a0and described the new policy as enabling\u00a0Facebook to &#8220;routinely\u00a0use the\u00a0images and names of Facebook users for commercial advertising without consent.&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">Responding to these concerns,\u00a0 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday\u00a0that it had begun an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/09\/12\/technology\/personaltech\/ftc-looking-into-facebook-privacy-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\">inquiry<\/a>\u00a0into whether Facebook&#8217;s new privacy policy was in violation of an earlier agreement with the FTC.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Georgia\">No matter the outcome of the FTC&#8217;s inquiry or the lawsuit against the NSA, it will at least be amusing to hear Facebook argue from both sides of its mouth.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><em>photo by Enoc vt on <a href=\"http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Not_facebook_not_like_thumbs_down.png\" title=\"Facebook Thumbs Down\" target=\"_blank\">Wikimedia<\/a><\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It turns out that no one likes invasions into their privacy. Not even Facebook. Since the rise of social media, 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