[LINK] "Facebook Revamps Privacy Policy"

Canada's Privacy Commissioner may have done it, after all.

In August, Facebook announced plans to beef up its privacy notifications and embark on a year-long overhaul of its developer platform after the Canadian privacy commission expressed concern about the social networking site's current policies.

Facebook split its privacy policy into eight sections, including sections that covered the information the company receives and how it is used and shared; how customers can view that information, change, or remove it, and how Facebook protects information.

The site also provided more details on its advertising network. Social Ads, for example, are sponsored promotions shown to your friends. "For example, if you become a fan of a Page for your favorite new movie, your friends may see an ad that includes that information," Facebook said.

The company also stressed that all person data is anonymized for advertising purposes. "For example, we won't tell an advertiser that you clicked on an ad, but we might report that, of the 100 people who clicked on the ad, 63 percent were female," Facebook said.

Facebook said that it does not use conversion tracking, which allows advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their ads. If Facebook does, however, the company promised to treat any information it collected confidentially."We'll continue to respect your privacy by not sharing your information with advertisers, and we'll anonymize any information we receive," the company said.

[LINK] "Vatican row delays Anglo-Catholic text"

This article, written by Richard Owen and published in the Times, of London, neatly states one point where the Roman Catholic Church's attempt to assimilate disaffected Anglicans into its structure could destabilize its own theologies.

When asked last week about admission into the Catholic Church of married Anglican priests under the new rules, Cardinal William Levada, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, replied that requests would be judged "on a case by case basis".

The row has been exacerbated by the decision to disclose Pope Benedict's approach to Anglican traditionalists before the final text was ready, thus risking another of the "diplomatic gaffes" that have occasionally marked his pontificate so far.

The Pope is understood to have wanted the announcement to be made only when the text was finalised, in order to avoid a public relations disaster like that which followed his rehabilitation in January of Richard Williamson, an excommunicated arch-conservative bishop, before he became aware that Bishop Williamson was a Holocaust denier.

However Cardinal Levada announced the Anglican move prematurely because he had just briefed Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Catholic Bishops of England of Wales — neither of whom were consulted — and was concerned that the news might leak out unofficially, Mr Tornielli wrote in Il Giornale.

A number of Catholic commentators have pointed out that allowing Anglicans to bring their "traditions and practices" with them could end up altering the traditions and practices of the Catholic Church — including celibacy — as much as undermining the Anglican communion.

[LINK] The new Irish-Argentines

The Irish Times's Tom Hennigan writes about a new sort of Irish-Argentines.

The city probably never featured prominently on lists of where older generations went to escape previous Irish slumps but then, this time around, the traditional recessionary outlets are also down on their luck.

Friends who had visited raved about one of the world’s most exciting cities. First-time visitors from Ireland are often surprised at just how sophisticated the city South Americans consider their continent’s most urbane capital actually is.

The boulevards remind you of Paris or Madrid, while the social life compares easily with London or New York. But the buzz in the air is Latin and the prices are far lower than anywhere near to home, even in these deflationary times.

For recent Irish émigrés planning to spend some time here while waiting for the tide to turn at home, this cut-price cosmopolitanism is a welcome attraction, as they look for somewhere to make savings and severance packages last longer.

Probably not since the 1860s and the arrival of Argentina’s original Irish community has this South American country with a dubious economic reputation been seen as a bolthole for those looking to escape hard times at home. “I love it here. The locals are very friendly, the standard of living is great and the weather is fantastic,” says Slattery.

Another recent arrival is Niamh Haughey, who decided to take a severance package from a failing bank back home. She had visited Argentina in 2004 and always thought about coming back to learn Spanish. “Some time out is good for you. I had a job in the boom and now have decided to do some travelling during the recession,” she says.

While some, such as Slattery and Haughey, are open to the idea of work experience to help make the euro they have brought with them go farther, few are planning a permanent move – perhaps just as well, as Argentina’s chaotic economy and stifling bureaucracy makes finding regular jobs a challenge.

For these children of the great Irish bust, goals such as learning Spanish and seeing some of the continent while the recession at home works its way through the job market are more important than carving out a foreign future like their predecessors did in London and Boston in the 1980s.

This migration by Irish seems fairly typical to me of a post-recession tendency to travel to Argentina for extended periods of time, to enjoy high living standards and low prices.

[LINK] "Why more binational couples are coming to Canada"

Noreen Fagan writes in Xtra! about how many same-sex binational couples, and not only in the United States, move to Canada as the only way that they can keep their families together.

I walked with purpose, my boots hitting the floor in a tempo that echoed my urgency. My mouth was dry and anxiety had sunk into the creases on my face. My family walked behind me, no one daring to talk in case my composure collapsed. I knew where to go and what to do. In my hand — now sweaty — I gripped an unassuming brown envelope that carried my family’s future in it. Our Canadian immigration papers.

It was just after midnight in early March 2007. We were walking down a wide hallway from the plane into Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, towards a glass window with signs directing new immigrants inside. We entered the room and went to the last counter that was open, handed our papers over to a small woman who, in a matter of fact way, stamped our papers, took our photographs and confirmed our permanent resident status before shuffling us toward customs. Like it was nothing.

It didn’t register right away that we were basically home free. Less than an hour later we walked out of the airport. We were tired but exhilarated — the relief was palpable. Only then could I let myself breathe. We hugged: me, my partner Tamara and our two boys. But it was Sebastian, our eldest son, who stirred up the emotion in all of us when he stopped and, referring back to the immigration officer said, “Mum, I like this country. That was the first time we have ever been called a family.”

Walking out of the airport that night, stamped papers in hand, was the last step on a journey that began when I first came out as a lesbian in Lusaka, Zambia in 1993. At 30 years old, I left a seven-year marriage and, with two young sons, embraced my sexual orientation in a country where proven incidents of homosexual conduct could land you in jail for up to 40 years.

It was then that I began my search for a place that my family could call home. It was a journey that, when I met my partner Tamara, turned epic. It took us from Zambia via the United States to Canada.

My partner is American and I am Zambian. We have been together for 12 years and have raised two sons — we are a family in our eyes, in our friends’ eyes, in the eyes of the Canadian government — but not according to the Zambian or United States governments. There, we have no status and no chance of living as a couple or a family.

“We considered a marriage between Noreen and my gay brother but what kind of a message is that to give your children?” says Tam when people ask her about other options. “Trying to teach them tolerance and pride, telling them there is nothing to be ashamed of — but, you need to lie to the social workers, your teachers, just about everyone.”

When it came down to it, living in the US was a short-term answer to a lifelong commitment. My sons and I moved there from Zambia in 2000 knowing that the chances of living there permanently depended heavily on the political climate. After four years of living together in the US, with no recognition as a couple or a family in sight, we applied to immigrate to Canada — something we later learned is a common strategy for binational same-sex couples.

The decision was wrought with emotion. Tam was devastated that she would have to leave the US, her family and her job. In turn, I was angry that, as a queer couple, we had to pay a high price for living in the US — higher taxes because Tam was considered a single person, $20,000 a year in university fees in order to keep my student visa. There was no possibility of socking away any money with a family of four living on one salary and with no idea of what the future held.

In the end, it was the boys’ future and our desire to see them in a welcoming environment that caused us to buckle down and start the lengthy application process. We spent months completing paperwork and pooling family funds. After the application was in, we waited anxiously for two years until we were finally accepted as permanent residents of Canada.

By Aug 11, 2008, we were ready to finally move. We packed the last of our things in a minivan and headed off to Canada, leaving behind our friends and our community in Carrboro, North Carolina. It was one of the hardest things that I have ever done — to leave friends who had become like family to us. Leaving them was, and still is, a harsh reminder of the sacrifices we have made in order to be accepted as a family. Though we’re certainly not the only ones.

Go, read the rest.