EU warns on Facebook privacy

Young Europeans using Facebook and other social networking sites may be unwittingly risking their privacy, according to a warning from Jacques Barrot, a vice president of the European Commission.

The alarm comes amid an outpouring of concern from parents and privacy advocates about the potentially negative effects of posting personal details and photographs to popular Web sites accessible from virtually any computer.

Youth job prospects have become a particular concern now that employers trawl social networking sites to discover details about whether potential employees are suitable hires. Another concern is how to enforce age limits on social networking sites so that Web surfers who are children are shielded from adults who have not been approved by parents.

Young people "are exposing their everyday life online without being aware of the risks the online activities could entail now and in the future for their own privacy," Barrot said Tuesday in a statement. "It is therefore crucial that those young people are educated how to surf the Internet in a privacy-friendly way." Barrot is responsible for matters concerning justice, freedom and security in the European Union.

EU officials also are concerned that information collected from such sites could be used by companies to flood consumers with unsolicited advertising or used by government agencies to compromise citizens' civil liberties.

The commission, the executive arm of the European Union, released the results of a study it conducted in late 2008 showing that 33 percent of respondents aged 15 to 24 were aware of their rights in relation to their own personal data, while 18 percent knew of the existence of national data protection supervisory authorities. Those figures are too low, the commission said.

No comments:

Post a Comment