"Do I not have a right to keep that information private?"
Generally no. I mean anyone can put their in law's information on their blog. It's a dick move but not illegal generally (if you're putting the person in danger like an battered spouse or witness protection there may be problems, IANAL).
I get the outrage that they didn't hash everything but the righteous indignation that a social network is trying their best to let people know when their friends sign up seems overblown.
Moral of the story: don't be shocked when social networks don't follow best practices for privacy. Also foxes like chickens.
If they're smart they'll revamp their system to work like this:
edit: (0) we get your permission /edit
(1) we check for your contacts in our database (hashing your contacts).
(2) we let you know if any matches are found.
(3) we throw away all your data afterwords.
They'll generate a few fewer matches this way but since they're going for stronger ties it shouldn't really be an issue.
Generally no. I mean anyone can put their in law's information on their blog. It's a dick move but not illegal generally (if you're putting the person in danger like an battered spouse or witness protection there may be problems, IANAL).
I get the outrage that they didn't hash everything but the righteous indignation that a social network is trying their best to let people know when their friends sign up seems overblown.
Moral of the story: don't be shocked when social networks don't follow best practices for privacy. Also foxes like chickens.
If they're smart they'll revamp their system to work like this:
edit: (0) we get your permission /edit
(1) we check for your contacts in our database (hashing your contacts).
(2) we let you know if any matches are found.
(3) we throw away all your data afterwords.
They'll generate a few fewer matches this way but since they're going for stronger ties it shouldn't really be an issue.