10 Things to Remember About Facebook Privacy and Security
10 Things to Remember About Facebook Privacy and Security
The concerns over privacy on Facebook just keep coming. The week of May 3,
the social network's users came across a loophole that allowed them to view
their friends' private chat conversations. Facebook quickly patched the hole,
but it left some users wondering if the site's attempts to grapple with privacy
issues over the past couple years have been doing more harm than good.
It's an understandable worry. Aside from allowing users to view private
conversations, Facebook experienced a similar glitch a few months ago when some
users received private messages intended for others. Once again, Facebook acted
quickly to address the problem, but it caused some privacy advocates to wonder
if the social network was doing enough to safeguard data.
For its part, Facebook has said time and again that these are small glitches that are quickly fixed. And it's also important to remember that a service with 400 million active users can't be expected to deliver absolute data security all the time. People who go on the Internet and join social networks should expect a certain degree of vulnerability for their personal data.
That's precisely why it's incumbent on people to act wisely when they join
the Facebook social network. No company can be fully trusted to keep a user's
individual data safe, nor should it be expected to do so. Inevitably, it's the
user's job to maintain personal privacy and security on a social network. But
that can only start with education.
Here are some things users must remember about Facebook:
1. There are privacy concerns
In order to have a clear understanding of the potential issues that could
arise when using Facebook, it's important to realize that there
are real privacy concerns that users should know about. Privacy might not
be the most glamorous topic to discuss when talking about Facebook, but users
also can't bury their heads in the sand and say the site has never experienced
issues that might have affected a user's privacy.
The sooner users accept that
Facebook has flaws, the sooner they can start safeguarding their data, changing
how they use social networks and gaining a better understanding of what privacy
really means on the Web.
2. There are holes
As Facebook becomes more popular, malicious hackers are finding unique ways
to target the company's more than 400 million active users. One
of their favorite tactics involves a phishing scam that asks users to input
their credentials into a fake Facebook look-alike. Once a user does so, hackers
have the log-in information they need to do whatever they'd like with the
person's profile. Better still, they can sell that data to others. It's an
issue that Facebook users must be prepared for.
3. Others can only get what they're offered
When it comes to privacy, only the information a person puts on the social
network can be divulged to third parties. It's important to remember that.
Although some folks use social networks as places to reveal their deepest and
darkest secrets, they're probably not the best places for it. Facebook is a
fine site that will allow users to communicate with friends, but some things
are better left offline where they have no chance of being accessed by others
when a glitch or hacker affects their privacy. When using social networks,
users must always remember that what they share could eventually be viewed by
someone they wished couldn't access such data.
4. Children have no place on Facebook
As much as Facebook wants users to feel like it's a community for everyone,
the social network is best suited for adults. Facebook originally started as a
place for college students to hang out. And as it grew and the company started
allowing more people in, kids started making their way to the social network.
That's not a good thing. If privacy is something that a particular adult is
concerned about, then allowing a child on Facebook probably isn't a good move.
The Web is still an extremely dangerous place for kids.
Internet Anonymity Is Over Forever
5. Facebook's privacy settings are actually useful
Before using Facebook, user should tweak their privacy settings. Although
they were originally panned by critics who felt Facebook wasn't acting with users'
best interests in mind, most have found the site's privacy settings to be
relatively robust in the social networking world. Within just a few minutes of
consulting the site's settings, users can easily decide which people are
allowed to see the content in their profiles. Facebook says it realizes that
privacy is important and, luckily, it's providing the tools users need to feel
comfortable.
6. The Web isn't the place to share sensitive information
Years ago, the Web was a bastion of anonymity. Time and again, users would
add comments to Websites, have flame wars in forums and never reveal their true
identity. But as sites like Facebook and MySpace have grown, the desire for
anonymity has slowly diminished as users share more and more information about
themselves. It has gotten so bad that some folks are even willing to share
their precise location. If privacy is really what they want, users need to
remember that of all places, the Internet is not the place to divulge sensitive
data. Users should only share what they're comfortable with every Web user
seeing.
7. Sometimes privacy isn't best for a social network
It's not in a social network's best interest for users to have every single
privacy setting at their disposal. That's why Facebook's default settings make
certain information available to others. But it's important for users to
understand that. In order to make information private, they will need to be
more diligent than they might like to be, simply because the more information is
shared on a social network, the more likely people are to want to use it. Facebook
knows it, MySpace knows it and Google knows it. And until users know it and
start fighting back, the privacy troubles will keep coming.
8. The alternatives aren't any better
Facebook
might have some privacy and security issues that trouble its users, but the
alternatives aren't any better. After an inauspicious beginning, Google Buzz
has been the target of privacy advocates wondering why the company didn't
implement the right policies in the first place. When MySpace was the top
social network in the world, it too suffered from privacy problems. When it
comes time to compare all privacy on all the major social networks, Facebook
comes out on top. If privacy is a user's main concern, Facebook is probably the
best choice out of any social network.
9. Some privacy is gone forever
The days of anonymity on the Web (if they ever existed) are officially over
as users are increasingly revealing their true identities. To some, that's a
problem. But the vast majority of users are becoming more comfortable with that
reality. As Web users sign up for social networks, they can expect at least
their names and a picture of themselves to be available on the Web within
minutes. And because so many users share basic information, like their hometown
and where they went to college, even that information is freely available. Whether
we like it or not, absolute privacy is now impossible to attain. And we have to
live with that (and accept it).
10. It's easy to blame Facebook
In the end, it's easy to blame Facebook for all the privacy woes some users
have experienced. But a significant portion of that blame should be placed on
users. Facebook is running a business that relies on users sharing information
with others. And although it attempts to maintain privacy as best as it can, it's
up to the users to only divulge the information they're willing to share. It's
also incumbent upon users to be educated about the risks that could potentially
affect them if they don't know enough about social networks and privacy.
Yes, there are inherent risks to using social networks. But those risks are
magnified if users aren't always thinking about their own privacy and how
prepared they are for potential data breaches. When it comes to social
networks, the onus is on us.
