After Facebook controversy, Commonwealth Games to not collect visitor details
Learning from Facebook's data-breach scandal, Commonwealth Games on Thursday dropped the idea of collecting information of visitors, whom it would have provided free/fast Wi-Fi during the multi-sport event. Notably, the Council of Gold Coast - where the games will be held from April 4 to 15 - has laid new fibre cables to ramp up internet connectivity by up to 10 times. Here's more.
Gold Coast drops mandatory FB login requirement for free internet
However, to avail the free high-speed internet service, visitors would have been asked to login through their Facebook accounts, in turn sharing with the Council all the information on their profiles. The Council intended to use the data to bolster future tourism marketing campaigns. But now after the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica controversy, Commonwealth Games organizers have decided to let visitors use Wi-Fi without FB login.
Gold Coast councillor's statement
Gold Coast councillor Hermann Vorster said in a statement, "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."
Gold Coast only wanted 'publicly available information' of visitors
Gold Coast Council told AFP that it made FB login compulsory to just "gather publicly available information about age, gender and nationality for the purpose of monitoring the use patterns". But the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties slammed it, saying that whatever the administrative body's claims, it would have had access to a veritable data mine, depending on a user's Facebook privacy settings.
