Facebook Privacy: 5 Most Ignored Mistakes

A Consumer Reports survey of Facebook users reveals many people still ignore privacy controls and sharing risks. Do you understand the common mistakes that could bite back?

6 Social Sites Sitting On The Cutting Edge (click image for larger view and for slideshow)
Facebook no longer represents that it offers privacy as a matter of policy, like some other companies do. It states outright that it will use your data. It has a
Data Use Policy
instead of a Privacy Policy.
But consider the dictionary definition of privacy:
1) The state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people; 2) The state of being free from public attention.
If thats your gold standard, then you cannot use Facebook or any other online service for that matter, at least not without privacy-protecting technology. Once you venture online, once you share, youre talking about something less than privacy. Online services may talk about how they respect privacy, but they should really be talking about data usage and sharing.
Facebooks privacy settings would be better referred to as sharing settings. That might encourage more people to use them. According to
Consumer Reports
, 13 million out of 150 million U.S. Facebook users dont use, or are not aware of, Facebooks privacy settings.
[ Learn more about Facebooks good developer seal of approval. Read
Facebook Blesses Adobe Social Marketing Apps
. ]
Consumer Reports
data comes from
a survey of 2,002 online households
, 1,340 of which are active on Facebook. From this limited data set, the magazine has projected nationwide Facebook usage trends. The magazines findings reveal some surprising privacy blind spots.
1. Privacy Settings
The fact that only 13 million, or 8.6%, of U.S. Facebook users, dont use, or dont know about, Facebooks privacy settings can be seen as encouraging because its a relatively small percentage. Its high compared to the rate of illiteracy in the United States, which is about
1% or less
if you accept a very lax definition of literacy. But its about what youd expect if you consider functional illiteracy, which suggests some
23 million U.S. adults have very low reading skills
. If you use Facebook, Facebook literacy is a must.
2. Location Sharing
Consumer Reports
estimates that 4.8 million people have published posts that contain details about their whereabouts during the day. The magazine calls this a potential tip-off to burglars. While there have been
reports of burglaries
linked to online posts about being away from home, you have to wonder whether other methods of location broadcasting--such as leaving home, when anyone might observe your absence without leaving an online data trail--might not present more of a risk. Even so, its probably best to think twice about saying too much about ones travel plans.
3. Liking Things That Could Be Used Against You
Some 4.7 million people have liked a Facebook page about a health condition or treatment.
Consumer Reports
suggests insurers could use this information against you. That may sound far-fetched, but there have already been documented cases of insurers
scouring Facebook to fight fraud
. And as
Consumer Reports
notes, the IRS and other government agencies are allowed to comb Facebook, and in some instances friend people, to fight fraud.
4. Betraying Family Privacy
Consumer Reports
says that some 39.3 million U.S. Facebook users identified a family member in their profile. Not a big deal in most cases, but how many times was permission sought? Not everyone wants to be tagged in a photo or posted about. Thats an issue of user thoughtfulness. But Facebook could help out here by making it easier for people to avoid involvement in sharing. Making
Tag Suggest opt-in rather than opt-out
would be a step in the right direction.
5. Telling Apps Too Much
Only 37% of Facebook users bother to use the sites privacy controls to limit the data apps can see about them, according to
Consumer Reports
survey. And anyone can create a Facebook app. Take a good look at the information requested by Facebook apps. You might be surprised.
Sophos
security researcher Chet Wisniewski in a phone interview called
Consumer Reports
findings disappointing but not surprising. As to whether or not the risks mentioned by the magazine are realistic, he said theres a lot of hype, but that doesnt mean the risks should be ignored. He said one problem with sharing hes seen has been stalking.
A lot of young women post their movements on Facebook and dont realize their photos have GPS coordinates, Wisniewski said. He also pointed to the website
pleaserobme.com
as a way to underscore the risks presented by sharing location information.
Online services, Wisniewski said, could do a better job with providing privacy by default instead of as something that has to be chosen.
Unfortunately, its a race to the bottom when some new feature or service is introduced, he said. Its a race to zero privacy.

As companies increase their use of cloud-based applications, IT and security professionals must make some tough and far-reaching decisions about how to provision, deprovision, and otherwise manage user access. This Dark Reading report,
How To Manage Identity In The Public Cloud
, examines the options and provides recommendations for determining which one is right for your organization. (Free registration required.)

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Facebook Privacy: 5 Most Ignored Mistakes