Social-networking sites must protect privacy

[Commentary] How many times have you changed your privacy settings on a social-networking site? If you've lost track, you're not alone. Nor are you alone in your nagging fear that your private information, or that of your child, is lurking out there despite your best efforts - because it very well may be.

Social-networking sites routinely "update" their privacy settings, making it difficult for users to keep track of their own personal information. That's good business for them - their revenue depends on giving advertisers access to as much user information as possible - but it's bad for those of us who care about privacy. No one should be confused about the security of their own personal information. It's a safety issue as well - if businesses have easy access to where you live and how to contact you, so do identity thieves and stalkers. A bill in the Legislature, SB242 by state Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, would establish privacy guidelines for social-networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Match.com. Sites would have to set defaults to private so that users themselves could choose which information to make public. It would also allow users to establish their privacy settings when they register to join sites, rather than after they have set up an account and profile. Finally, it would require sites to remove personally identifying information within 48 hours of a user request - or a parent's request, if the user is under the age of 18. As social-networking sites grow and develop in importance, their responsibilities grow as well. And if they don't provide users with the privacy that they need, then government officials must step in.