After the Rutgers incident, Facebook has been on high alert (with it's 3 levels of security settings). But, just when the scars of a student's death and questions regarding online privacy in a world of social media were being raised, answered and to a certain level being viewed as a case study Facebook has once again found itself in hot waters.
Remember the Farmville rage on Facebook? Yes, yes I have to admit I was part of it too! Sowing away seeds for strawberries before a World Lit class and reaping them right after, decorating the farm in lights for Christmas and collecting virtual eggs from chickens. But, deep within the game was an apparent hidden agenda as the Wall Street Journal in an investigative report revealed today. The top 10 games/applications on Facebook including- Mafia Wars, Farmville and many others are secretly collecting information about you and me, passing it on to outside firms.
What's the risk? Well, how about for starters all your information- D.O.B, location, likes and dislikes etc. which despite our best attempts at setting up security settings are easily scooped up thanks to a Facebook ID# (similar to a Blackberry ID) that once entered grants open access to anyone's account.
So, while FB has gained good PR from the "Social Network" movie (despite its bashing of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerburg), how is FB going to handle security threats,abuse of B2B relations (between itself and vendor companies like Zynga) and more importantly how safe is our information out there on the world's smoothest functioning social network? Only time will tell what is going to be done to counter this ripple.
Facebook in Privacy Breach -http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
How Facebook Apps Leak User IDs- http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/10/18/referers-how-facebook-apps-leak-user-ids/
Alexander Mathew
This is a very interesting post. I actually believed that FB was taking good care of our personal information.
ReplyDeletei definetely think they should come up with excellent security walls taking into consideration all the accounts they have to manage.
Thank you for your post!
Mariana Alfonzo
Wow, didn't realize the high exposure of personal information. Just when we thought FB was secure...
ReplyDeleteKashanna Johnson
I feel, FB possibly didn't look into developing huge firewalls for a simple social media site. I guess, in after thought they maybe wrong. Given the fact that there are more and more people getting online with all their information in tote, social media sites have to be very careful to whom and why they sell demographic information.
ReplyDeleteAlexander Mathew