Senators urge Facebook to change privacy settings

Washington (CNN) — Four Democratic senators called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday to reconsider the recent changes in its privacy settings and asked the Federal Trade Commission to streamline guidelines regarding privacy on all social networks.

“Now, users have less control over private information, and it was done without the users’ permission,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said on Capitol Hill.

Schumer and Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Mark Begich of Alaska and Al Franken of Minnesota sent a letter to Zuckerberg about Facebook’s decision to allow third-party sharing of users’ information.

“We are writing to express our concern regarding recent changes to the Facebook privacy policy and the use of personal data on third party websites,” the senators wrote. “The expansion of Facebook — both in the number of users and applications — raises new concerns for users who want to maintain control over their information.”

Online security goes mobile

It’s a mobile, mobile mobile, mobile world: More and more of us are using laptop computers, Apple (AAPL)  iPhone’s, Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerrys, USB flash drives and other portable computing and storage devices in our day-to-day lives.

Many freelancers and consultants bring their laptops to Starbucks coffee shops, and treat it as their virtual office.

And it’s not just consumers and consultants who are adopting a mobile computing lifestyle.  Companies and government agencies are trying to become more agile and efficient, and increasingly are relying on productivity gains that come from a more mobile workforce.

According to industry analyst firm IDC, there will be over 1 billion mobile workers by 2011.  That means there will be at least 1 billion portable computing and storage devices that will contain work and personal data.  The overall productivity gains sound impressive, but have you ever thought about what could happen if one of those portable computing or storage devices were to be lost or stolen?

In digital world, we trade privacy for convenience

It only takes the touch of a finger to locate the nearest bank, purchase tickets for a movie or find directions to just about anywhere in the world.

The digital revolution has changed the way the current generation carries out everyday tasks. But some say that convenience has come at the price of your privacy.

Your personal interests and where you shop is valuable data for companies that want to effectively target their direct marketing. And it’s not just a matter of companies recording your IP addresses and credit card swipes.

“Almost anything you do in today’s society involves leaving a track,” said Doug Klunder of the American Civil Liberties Union. He’s the director of the ACLU of Washington’s Privacy Project.

Not to be a buzz kill…

Is too much of a Buzz a good thing? With the initial release of Google Buzz, from a privacy perspective we might have to ask: “what was Google thinking?”

Last month Google posted, in time for the FTC Privacy Roundtable in Berkeley, the company’s Privacy Principles.   Moreover, Nicole Wong, Google’s Deputy General Counsel told the Roundtable audience:

“I’ll just be really clear: We compete on privacy. We do that in terms of trying to develop the best possible products that are privacy sensitive. We do that because we have an entire team of engineers specifically dedicated to privacy, and a cross-functional group that meets every week that involves everyone from engineers to policy people to legal people to talk about the biggest issues in privacy. We absolutely compete in this space.”

So let’s see how Google’s Privacy Principles reflect on Google Buzz: