Nona Belomesoff murder prompts Australian Facebook revolt as police issue warning against Facebook

CourierMail.com.au


AUSTRALIANS have joined a worldwide Facebook revolt after the vicious murder of a NSW teenager and new privacy features that allow retailers to spy on profiles.

Queensland Police have issued an unprecedented warning to all teenagers to remove photos from the site after Sydney teen Nona Belomesoff was allegedly murdered by a stranger she met on Facebook.

The 18-year-old's body was found in bushland near Campbelltown on Friday night and police have charged a 20-year-old man with her murder.

Det Supt Peter Crawford of Taskforce Argos, the unit which hunts online predators, said photos should be removed from public view.

"If you use social networking as a closed network of friends that you know and only share photos and information among that small close-knit group, then the risks are very much reduced," he said.

"I don't think kids need to have a profile photograph on the internet."

The shocking murder comes as anger mounts over new Facebook features that allow certain websites to view and store the Facebook profile of visitors.

Facebook members have to proactively opt out of the new "Instant Personalisation" feature which the websites say will "personalise their web-surfing experience".

Online protesters have started a "Quit Facebook" campaign which encourages users to close Facebook accounts by May 31.

The campaign focuses on the fact users have to change 50 different settings to stop the site from sharing private information with third parties.

Australian Privacy Foundation vice-chairman David Vaile is concerned because Facebook members have not consented to the new privacy settings.

"The commercial partners will not only have the private information of Facebook users but can also see who they know and who they talk to," Mr Vaile said.

"This is not a private joke. This is the publication of your information to five billion people possibly forever."

Mr Vaile said the APF would lobby the Government to address Facebook privacy concerns.

More than fifteen consumer watchdog groups have already filed formal complaints to the US Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook has defended the new capabilities and says they are only used on review websites Yelp, Pandora and Microsoft's new document sharing website docs.com.