This morning I read the news from CNET.com and one story caught my eye. It says “5 Hidden Dangers Of Facebook“. I like to use Facebook to connect with my friends but I am really aware of my personal data privacy. Facebook claims that it has 400 million users. But are they well-protected from prying eyes, scammers, and unwanted marketers? Do you really trust your personal data privacy to Facebook? I don’t. So the first thing I look at on Facebook is the privacy and account settings, and I update them to strict profile sharing. And I don’t accept any friend request from people I don’t know in the real world.
According to Joan Goodchild (senior editor of CSO), your privacy may be at far greater risk of being violated than you know when you log onto the social-networking site, due to security gaffes or marketing efforts by the company.
Facebook came under fire this past week, when 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, charging that the site, among other things, manipulates privacy settings to make users’ personal information available for commercial use. Also, some Facebook users found their private chats accessible to everyone on their contact list — a major security breach that’s left a lot of people wondering just how secure the site is.
On “The Early Show on Saturday Morning,” Goodchild spotlighted five dangers she says Facebook users expose themselves to, probably without being aware of them:
- Your information is being shared with third parties
- Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign
- Facebook ads may contain malware
- Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable
- Scammers are creating fake profiles
You can read the interview of “5 Hidden Dangers Of Facebook” from CBSNews.com.