Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them
> One Facebook broker, Acxiom, requires people to send the last four digits of their social security number to obtain their data.<p>This is just one of the many WTFs that Facebook apparently actively supports.<p>In what world, what possible explanation was this ever a good idea? Or a reasonable idea? Either the US SSN is like a password (it's not) then how did Acxiom get their hands on it, or it isn't (correct) and it doesn't serve the purpose for identification.<p>Letting this sort of crap run wild also affects what is considered "normal" or common privacy in other parts of the world, like the EU, it slides the window. Continuously pushing the boundaries against people watching helplessly as layer upon layer of foundations of surveillance are built. Authorities don't do much until adoption is way beyond the curve of network effect, or they do it weirdly. And by then people think it's normal or acceptable.<p>Already now, on countless popular sites, advertising transgresses heavily on not only guidelines but also law. Medical claims, product placement, child advertising, you name it.<p>What can we do to not make the lowest common denominator decide what's normal?