Facebook and Privacy - Food for Thought

[Marc]

Facebook has leaked photographs, profiles and other personal information for millions of its users because of a years-old bug that overrides individual privacy settings, researchers from Symantec said. The flaw, which the researchers estimate has affected hundreds of thousands of applications, exposed user access tokens to advertisers and others. The tokens serve as a spare set of keys that Facebook apps use to perform certain actions on behalf of the user, such as posting messages to a Facebook wall or sending RSVP replies to invitations. For years, many apps that rely on an older form of user authentication turned over these keys to third parties, giving them the ability to access information users specifically designated as off limits.

 

[kgott]

I have misgivings aobut the Symatic explanation. If you go to this website below, you will find that innocent inadvertant bugs are not the only cause of loss of privacy on social networking sites and now your Iphone too. www.abovetopsecret.com

 

[The Specialist]

You sign up, upload information about yourself, share photos of you, your family and kids, tell the world what you have been doing since you got up that morning, when you are going on holiday and for how long...

And then you worry about privacy?!!!

Irony? Anyone?!

 

[Marc]

<snip> and now your Iphone too. <snip>

Not to mention Android phones and - Well, all "smart phones".

 

[True Position]

You sign up, upload information about yourself, share photos of you, your family and kids, tell the world what you have been doing since you got up that morning, when you are going on holiday and for how long...

And then you worry about privacy?!!!

Irony? Anyone?!

No, there's no irony at all. Sharing information uploaded as 'Friends and Family Only' to anybody is a clear privacy violation.

 

[The Specialist]

No, there's no irony at all. Sharing information uploaded as 'Friends and Family Only' to anybody is a clear privacy violation.

Of course, True Position, I appreciate that... and do not disagree that there is issue to be taken with the 'leaks' and 'bugs'.

But in a world where you can't throw your bank statement in a bin without first shredding it into 10m pieces and 'super smart' fraudsters are hacking into everything they can, and marketing-savvy phone and social network site operators making billions... surely you can see that 'Facebookers' are providing oportunity for abuse?

Not saying it is right, but I still feel there is a little irony, or call it naivety, in this?!

Of course, this is only my opinion.

 

[True Position]

Of course, True Position, I appreciate that... and do not disagree that there is issue to be taken with the 'leaks' and 'bugs'.

But in a world where you can't throw your bank statement in a bin without first shredding it into 10m pieces and 'super smart' fraudsters are hacking into everything they can, and marketing-savvy phone and social network site operators making billions... surely you can see that 'Facebookers' are providing oportunity for abuse?

Not saying it is right, but I still feel there is a little irony, or call it naivety, in this?!

Of course, this is only my opinion.

The issue is the leaks / bugs. If someone chooses to give up some particular amount of privacy that doesn't lessen the justification to complain when other trust is violated.

To your bank statement: Simply printing and mailing bank statements creates massive opportunities for abuse. If you simply viewed PDFs on the banks secure web site, used a phone pbx, or went into a branch would remove thousands of paper records that are just duplicates of the data in the bank database.

 

[mguilbert]

Maybe I am an over protective parent, but I used to use social networking sites to see what kind of people my daughter was dating. Before she left for college she came to the conclusion that she did not like the internet because nothing on there is private. I have also used it to look up people that needed to serve legal papers.

 

[kgott]

I think there’s a little more to it than that.

It's not just about sharing your daily goings on thats the issue. I have read, correct or not, that various branches of the US government now have software that is able to draw reasonably reliable matches between people in terms of this person is connected to that person and this person has that kind of a relationship that person.

Don't know about anyone else but that to me is a real worry. What people chose to reveal about themselves to the world is their own business but insidious technology that draws social and other sorts of relationship maps between people is something else.