http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/sb242-privacy-law-california_n_862381.htmlA landmark law proposed in California would upend social networking sites' privacy policies by instituting new restrictions on what user information is shared and requiring sites to institute more stringent privacy settings.
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The bill,
which would apply only to users in California, would prohibit sites from displaying users' home addresses or telephone numbers without their consent and would mandate services remove of any information about a user within 48 hours of the request, or face a $10,000 fine.
Under the proposed law, social networking sites would be required to have all users choose their privacy settings--explained in "plain language"--as part of the registration process. It also spells out a privacy setting that would be mandated to serve as the default on all sites and that would prohibit "the display...of any information about a registered user, other than the user's name and city of residence, without the agreement of the user."
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"This legislation is a serious threat both to Facebook's business in California and to meaningful California consumers' choices about use of personal data," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said of the proposed law, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "Any legislative or regulatory proposal must honor users' expectations in the contexts in which they use online services and promote the innovation that fuels the growth of the Internet economy."
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