Post by Rook on Jul 30, 2011 9:28:00 GMT -5
I find internet privacy to be a very important issue, and I wanted to bring up a few things that I'm not sure everyone thinks about when they use Facebook. I am hesitant to post much of my personal data because I worry about how that information could be used. My concerns may go beyond yours and wander into the realm of crazy government conspiracy theories. It’s not my place to convince you one way or another about whether or not a totalitarian state could arise and use your internet profile as a way to more easily oppress you. That is an extreme possibility. There are very real, and immediate, concerns when it comes to internet privacy.
Allowing the volume of personal information that Facebook allows to go unchecked and unprotected can be dangerous. Where the concerns about corporations compiling meticulous records about a person’s preferences and the potential ramifications of that may be extreme, the threats to a person’s health and safety are not.
The staggering amount of personal Information made freely available on Facebook can create an alarmingly accurate picture of what kind of person you are. That may seem desirable to some, as it makes initial social interactions easier as one’s preferences are easily displayed. Unfortunately, it’s also possible to use the same information to not just know who you are, but where you are and when you’ll be there. A fully exposed, well detailed Facebook account does a criminal’s work for them. By leaving your profile completely public, with your address listed and a status update about being on vacation, you're telling any robber on Facebook that you’re not home. Or how about you instead make a status update about how your boyfriend left town for the weekend and you’re all alone. You're now a soft target a sexual predator. If you think I’m being extreme:
-A man used profile information to guess the security questions and break into gmail accounts.
- "Your date of birth and name of your first school may seem like innocuous bits of information, but they are the building blocks to your identity," said James Jones of Experian.
-Nationwide 100,000 crimes including terrorism, sudden death, missing pets, fraud, assault, rape have been linked to Facebook and the information available on people’s accounts.
-Pedophiles use Facebook to groom children.
And all this is just what I found on a casual Google search. So what do you do? Facebook has privacy settings. When was the last time you checked yours? Does everyone with a Facebook account need to be able to see your status updates? Do you have have information you don’t want everyone in the world to know, pictures you don’t want anyone who drops by to see? Take a moment to switch your setting from ‘Everyone’ to something you’re more comfortable with such as friends of friends or friends only. If you’re friends with people you don’t know well enough, remove the content from your profile.
Apart from your health, there has been a rampant problem with photos causing people terrible strife in their personal life. Teenagers and college kids with a profile full of public photos of their raucous parties are finding trouble getting jobs or keeping the jobs they have. People are being dismissed from sensitive jobs because of what they post on their wall or photos tagged of them. You cannot always control who takes a picture of you, but you can control who sees pictures you’re tagged in. I know Soldiers who get in trouble for things they post online. People’s background checks are starting to incorporate Facebook in their searches. Your Facebook content is being considered when you’re seeking credit. Think about what you’re posting online, because no matter how private you make your account your friends will still see it. Know who is on your friends list. Know how exposed your content will be. Most of all if you don’t want your boss, a future boss or your mother to see your pictures or updates: don’t put it on Facebook! Once it’s online someone will be able to get to it especially in legal matters.
In 1976 the Supreme Court (United States vs. Miller) ruled that the bank did not have to inform its customers when it turned over financial records to government authorities. This set a precedence that information held by third parties has no expectation of privacy. Already in 2011 over a dozen warrants have been issued to search Facebook accounts, nearly double what there were last year. Information you place on your Facebook can be used against you in a court of law if you find yourself in trouble. People are already being convicted of crimes because of evidence gathered from their social media profiles. This is a boom to criminal justice but remember, the same as when talking to a police officer, information you give the authorities can be used against you – but rarely can it help you. Facebook has the potential to incriminate the innocent just as easily as a verbal statement can be twisted by a clever lawyer to gain a conviction.
Facebook’s great, it’s a wonderful way to keep in touch and to interface with friends, but it has its limits and its dangers as with anything else we use on the internet and off of it. Ultimately Facebook can only be so secure and it requires you to be discerning about what you expose to the world at large.
Allowing the volume of personal information that Facebook allows to go unchecked and unprotected can be dangerous. Where the concerns about corporations compiling meticulous records about a person’s preferences and the potential ramifications of that may be extreme, the threats to a person’s health and safety are not.
The staggering amount of personal Information made freely available on Facebook can create an alarmingly accurate picture of what kind of person you are. That may seem desirable to some, as it makes initial social interactions easier as one’s preferences are easily displayed. Unfortunately, it’s also possible to use the same information to not just know who you are, but where you are and when you’ll be there. A fully exposed, well detailed Facebook account does a criminal’s work for them. By leaving your profile completely public, with your address listed and a status update about being on vacation, you're telling any robber on Facebook that you’re not home. Or how about you instead make a status update about how your boyfriend left town for the weekend and you’re all alone. You're now a soft target a sexual predator. If you think I’m being extreme:
-A man used profile information to guess the security questions and break into gmail accounts.
- "Your date of birth and name of your first school may seem like innocuous bits of information, but they are the building blocks to your identity," said James Jones of Experian.
-Nationwide 100,000 crimes including terrorism, sudden death, missing pets, fraud, assault, rape have been linked to Facebook and the information available on people’s accounts.
-Pedophiles use Facebook to groom children.
And all this is just what I found on a casual Google search. So what do you do? Facebook has privacy settings. When was the last time you checked yours? Does everyone with a Facebook account need to be able to see your status updates? Do you have have information you don’t want everyone in the world to know, pictures you don’t want anyone who drops by to see? Take a moment to switch your setting from ‘Everyone’ to something you’re more comfortable with such as friends of friends or friends only. If you’re friends with people you don’t know well enough, remove the content from your profile.
Apart from your health, there has been a rampant problem with photos causing people terrible strife in their personal life. Teenagers and college kids with a profile full of public photos of their raucous parties are finding trouble getting jobs or keeping the jobs they have. People are being dismissed from sensitive jobs because of what they post on their wall or photos tagged of them. You cannot always control who takes a picture of you, but you can control who sees pictures you’re tagged in. I know Soldiers who get in trouble for things they post online. People’s background checks are starting to incorporate Facebook in their searches. Your Facebook content is being considered when you’re seeking credit. Think about what you’re posting online, because no matter how private you make your account your friends will still see it. Know who is on your friends list. Know how exposed your content will be. Most of all if you don’t want your boss, a future boss or your mother to see your pictures or updates: don’t put it on Facebook! Once it’s online someone will be able to get to it especially in legal matters.
In 1976 the Supreme Court (United States vs. Miller) ruled that the bank did not have to inform its customers when it turned over financial records to government authorities. This set a precedence that information held by third parties has no expectation of privacy. Already in 2011 over a dozen warrants have been issued to search Facebook accounts, nearly double what there were last year. Information you place on your Facebook can be used against you in a court of law if you find yourself in trouble. People are already being convicted of crimes because of evidence gathered from their social media profiles. This is a boom to criminal justice but remember, the same as when talking to a police officer, information you give the authorities can be used against you – but rarely can it help you. Facebook has the potential to incriminate the innocent just as easily as a verbal statement can be twisted by a clever lawyer to gain a conviction.
Facebook’s great, it’s a wonderful way to keep in touch and to interface with friends, but it has its limits and its dangers as with anything else we use on the internet and off of it. Ultimately Facebook can only be so secure and it requires you to be discerning about what you expose to the world at large.
