Facebook Friday: Teacher trouble

Originally posted 07/08/2011 on lubbockonline.com

People never learn. Facebook is not a private place. You have more privacy in the local pub than on Facebook. Assuming no one posts they saw you there on Facebook. Or tweets it. But people still insist on treating it as a private forum. Winnie Hu of the NY Times tells us that a teacher in New Jersey is on (paid) administrative leave after complaints that she posted that she felt like she was a warden over future convicts on Facebook.

I wish I could say this was the first time, or at least unusual. But for some reason teachers seem to be particularly susceptible to the keyboard equivalent of loose lips. From teachers posting questionable pictures to detailing their religious conflicts with their students, teachers are the epitomy of too open on Facebook.

This is a situation that will only get worse unless something changes. Privacy and the control of individuals personal and identifying information will continue to move from the individual to third parties who may have no interest in protecting the individual or his data. That is something we should all be up in arms over.

Amazon wins customer protection case.

Declan McCullagh of CNET reports that Amazon has won it's case against the state of North Carolina. Amazon doesn't have a physical presence in N.C., so the state can't collect sales tax on items sold on Amazon. But North Carolina has a usage tax that is supposed to be paid by citizens of the state. Because the tax wasn't being collected N.C. wants Amazon to give up the names and items purchased by citizens of N.C. so they can be charged for the tax.

Amazon had offered anonymized data, but the state wouldn't accept it. The judge ruled that the N.C. was asking for more information than it had a right to. In addition, the data ran afoul of the First Amendment by giving the state access to information on what people were reading, watching, and listening to.

The decision was in line with previous court decisions on states asking etailers for customer information. States have no need to know exactly what we purchase unless they have reason to believe we are breaking the law. Even then they should need a court order or search warrant.