Who Watches the Watchmen

For the security conscious, two important bits of news. The most recent involved Twitter, and an attempt to prove that direct messages held the same level of privacy as mail or phone calls. The courts found that by joining, members agreed to reveal their IP addresses, thus their privacy, to Twitter, with no expectation of privacy. They key -- the reveal to a third party. In this case, how long until messaging via Facebook ruled the same.

The other important bit regards Facebook, and that it has submitted to 20 years of monitoring of its privacy policies by the FTC. This on the heels last year of Google forced to do same.

This case involved proving what I saw as self-evident: Facebook was selling personal profile information to marketers. By giving in to FTC, Facebook proves my point that it is in reality the greatest data harvesting and consumer marketing tool in the history of mankind.

And remember, just like Twitter, you volunteered for it when you clicked YES on the EULA.

But why the Alan Moore reference to open?

Think it through. Facebook and Google for years collected bits and pieces of your personal information. Now, the U.S. Government will oversee that, and make sure those two private firms comply.

So then, who watches the FTC?

As an aside, take care with your DM's. There appear to be some more leaky APIs associated with third party apps that might put your DM's out into your main stream.