Friday, October 28, 2011

Max's privacy war brings Facebook to heel

Austrian student Max Schrems sits with 1222 pages worth of his personal data that Facebook provided to him.
Austrian student Max Schrems sits with 1222 pages worth of his personal data that Facebook provided to him. Photo: AP

(The Sydney Morning Herald)  Max Schrems wasn't sure what he would get when he asked Facebook to send him a record of his personal data from three years of using the site.

What the 24-year-old Austrian law student didn't expect, though, was 1222 pages of data on a CD. It included chats he had deleted more than a year ago, "pokes" dating back to 2008, invitations to which he had never responded, let alone attended, and hundreds of other details.

Time for an "aha" moment...