Thursday, December 1, 2011

What's wrong with the FTC-look at the Facebook settlement. Shameful by any legal standard!

Is anyone else disappointed in how inefficient U.S. government and the FTC has been-waiting this long and willing to accept "settlements" from companies like Facebook that relish in exposing everyone (except their own executives) information as part of their culture and original business model. I guess that is a type of business model in the way that cos I never heard of, posting your information and then asking you to "claim this profile". That there is no financial punishment to a company that has been doing it blatantly since it's founding (in legal terms punitive damages) indicates that the laws and congress are for sale, through corporate lobbyists-Facebook has a big lobbying unit in Washington D.C.
Its a shame because without punitive damages there is no incentive for anyone to respect privacy until they are forced to (which in Facebook's case was 5 years plus) I cannot imagine in private sector lawyers would work and spend years only to settle for such weak terms (no financial or punitive damages) It is a settlement between a watchdog and a private, for profit company being treated like a misunderstanding that has been going on for over 5 years! I can understand why FTC and other government agencies cannot attract top level talent nowadays. If I were a lawyer and spent all this time and effort to get nothing tangible (financial or personal satisfaction) I would feel like the whole thing was a waste of my time and expertise.

-A "faceless" Myabuyer


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