Social Media Rights?! It's about damn time.
I've always been pretentious of the things I've always wanted to say on social networks because I was afraid it would someday be used against me in the court of law. Sure, the First Amendment can cover my ass, but not as much as we think these days among the inter-webz. Also, I'm a big fan of "Tweet, Delete, Repeat," so I may have been drunk and said something offensive and provocative on the internet that I did not mean (I actually may have done this too many times)… But what's the point of me deleting my tweets when these websites are teaming up with the government to collect all of my information through my Tourettes' minded thoughts? Websites need to figure out how to handle private consumer data and start learning how to be honest with it's users.
There has been talk of a newly proposed Bill of Rights for all Social Media activity and it is something that brings music to my ears (as it should to your nosey ears as well).
“We the users expect social network sites to provide us the following rights in their Terms of Service, Privacy Policies, and implementations of their system:
1. Honesty: Honor your privacy policy and terms of service.
2. Clarity: Ensure that policies and terms of service are easy to understand.
3. Freedom of speech: Don’t censor without a clear policy and justification.
4. Empowerment: Support privacy-enhancing and assistive technologies.
5. Security: Treat my data as securely as your own, and notify me if it is compromised.
6. Data minimization: Minimize the information I am required to provide and share with others.
7. Control: Let me control my data, and don’t share it with others unless I agree first.
8. Predictability: Don’t change who or what sees my data without my consent.
9. Right to know: Show me how you are using my data and allow me to see who and what has access to it.
10. Right to self-define: Let me create more than one identity and use pseudonyms. Do not link them without my permission.
11. Right to appeal: Allow me to appeal disciplinary actions.
12. Right to leave: Allow me to delete my account, and take my data with me.”
