Gold Coast City Council backtracks on Facebook data mining plans
Gold Coast City Council has amended its plans to retrieve data from the Facebook profiles of visitors to the upcoming Commonwealth Games who sign up to use free high-speed Wi-Fi.
Launched earlier this week, the new network was to have required users wanting to access the high-speed service to log in via their Facebook accounts, with the Council to gather data such as age, nationality and gender for marketing purposes.
However, a statement from the Council advised “the change has come about after Facebook executives ... confirmed they had privacy issues with their global site.”
City of Gold Coast Committee Chair Hermann Vorster said the Council would amend the feature on its Wi-Fi to allow users to access the service without having to log in through their Facebook sites.
Councillor Vorster advised “the Facebook CEO has confirmed that he is investigating privacy issues to do with Facebook and how it manages people's privacy. So if Facebook cannot guarantee the security of its users, it is best Council takes a cautionary approach and removes this feature from our free Wi-Fi. That is what we are doing right now.
“The change to our Wi-Fi log in page will be sorted in the next few days, meaning people will be able to access free Council wi-fi in our chosen precincts, without having to log in via Facebook.”
Image: Commonwealth Games mascot Borobi
23rd March 2018 - METRICON STADIUM TRANSFORMS AHEAD OF 2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES OPENING CEREMONY
21st March 2018 - FREE COMMONWEALTH GAMES WI-FI TO MINE VISITORS’ FACEBOOK DATA
20th March 2018 - VILLAGE ROADSHOW THEME PARKS OFFERS FREE ENTRY TO COMMONWEALTH GAMES ATHLETES AND VOLUNTEERS
21st December 2017 - MASSIVE ROOFTOP SOLAR INSTALLATION LAUNCHED AT GOLD COAST AQUATIC CENTRE
20th November 2017 - FINAL MAJOR RELEASE OF TICKETS FOR GOLD COAST COMMONWEALTH GAMES
17th October 2017 - COMMONWEALTH GAMES LEGACY TO BENEFIT QUEENSLAND SPORT
15th March 2016 - METRICON STADIUM INTRODUCES STATE-OF-THE-ART WI-FI CONNECTIVITY
26th March 2014 - GOLD COAST COMMONWEALTH GAMES’ ATHLETES VILLAGE REVEALED
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