Facebook Turns Friends Into IT Support

Facebooks new Trusted Contacts option lets friends assist with account recovery, so Facebook personnel dont have to.

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Just as companies have warmed to the financial benefits of employee-supplied devices and have embraced the rent savings of offices that are open but smaller under the pretense of promoting interaction, Facebook has recognized the economic and security promise of deputizing users to provide customer support.
The social network, ever keen to increase user engagement, wants you to designate friends as
Trusted Contacts
who can restore access to your Facebook account if you ever have trouble logging in. Dont call us, call a friend.
Why might you have trouble logging in? Facebook doesnt say. A hacked account is one possibility, but presumably anyone who hijacks your account could alter your Trusted Contact list. And Facebook maintains a separate account reset process for hacked accounts, at
facebook.com/hacked
.
[ Wondering what its like to wear Googles new high-tech glasses? Read
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. ]
The most common scenario for resorting to Trusted Contacts is a forgotten password. This could be a relatively frequent occurrence, given that Facebook tends to keep users logged in, thereby obviating the need to type ones password and making it easier to forget.
Account recovery processes, however, have a long history of insecurity. For example, in 2008, the Yahoo Mail account of then vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was hacked when a University of Tennessee student
reset the account password
by answering what turned out to be obvious password recovery questions. The following year, Yahoo Mails account recovery process
was abused again
to gain control over a Twitter administrative account.
A Facebook spokeswoman in an email said that there are also occasions when users
lose access to the email account
through which they log in to Facebook.
Facebook in a blog post suggests that the Trusted Contact account recovery process represents an improvement on answering security questions. With trusted contacts, theres no need to worry about remembering the answer to your security question or filling out long web forms to prove who you are, the company says. You can recover your account with help from your friends.
Theres another security benefit too: Account compromises often occur as a result of social engineering attacks. While customer service personnel can be tricked into revealing personal information by people posing as account holders, friends presumably are less likely to be duped by an imposter soliciting sensitive data.
With Trusted Contacts, Facebook support personnel can expect fewer emails from users who cant log in to get their their social fix. Whats more, Trusted Contacts could create a user retention halo effect: Users will probably be less likely to drift away from Facebook when their friends have entrusted them with the keys to their accounts.

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Facebook Turns Friends Into IT Support