CWG ABANDON VISITORS’ DATA MINING AFTER FACEBOOK SCANDAL

SYDNEY: A plan to mine data from Commonwealth Games visitors who use free and fast wifi in Australia was abandoned Thursday as a privacy scandal swirls around social media giant Facebook.

The local Gold Coast council is offering a service up to 10 times normal speed after laying new fibre cables to coincide with the multi-sport event next month, which is contested between nations that are members of the Commonwealth. But there was a catch.

To use it, they wanted people to log on through a Facebook account, allowing the council to capture data, which it said would be used to help shape future tourism marketing campaigns. But authorities had a re-think after Facebook became embroiled in a snowballing scandal over the hijacking of personal data from millions of its users.

Gold Coast councillor Hermann Vorster said the wifi feature would be amended to allow users to access it without having to log in through the social media platform. “Only today, the Facebook CEO has confirmed that he is investigating privacy issues to do with Facebook and how it manages people’s privacy,” he said in a statement.

“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 wifi. That is what we are doing right now.”