In response to an EPIC
Freedom of Information Act Request, the Government Services Administration released several contracts between the federal government and web 2.0 companies, including agreements with
Blip.tv,
Blist,
Google (YouTube),
Yahoo (Flickr), and
MySpace. EPIC also obtained amendments to agreements with
Facebook,
Slideshare.net,
Vimeo.com, and
AddThis.com. The contracts do not address the privacy obligations of social media companies. The GSA
letter to EPIC explained that “no specific Web 2.0 guidance currently exists,” but provided EPIC with
Training Slides that raise privacy issues. The GSA
Agreement with Google actually states that, “to the extent any rules or guidelines exist prohibiting the use of persistent cookies in connection with Provider Content applies to Google, Provider expressly waives those rules or guidelines as they may apply to Google.” Some of the agreements also permit companies to track users of government web sites for advertising purposes. For more information see
EPIC Social Network Privacy,
EPIC Facebook, and
EPIC Cloud Computing.