Tuesday 25 November 2008

Facebook notification settings reset: implications

Today I received an email which may or may not have been from Facebook. It simply read:

Unfortunately, the settings that control which email notifications get sent to you were lost. We're sorry for the inconvenience. To reset your email notification settings, go to: http://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php?notifications
Thanks,
The Facebook Team

I'm always on my guard when it comes to things like this, and feared it was a phishing scam where someone was trying to steal my details. After all, how could Facebook lose such important settings? Email notifications allow you to let Facebook send you alerts when something happens, so you don't have to constantly log into the site. But such alerts can be annoying -- you can get alerts for every tag, event or group invitation. So I've pretty much turned all of these off. Surely Facebook couldn't lose these settings?

Well, when I logged in to Facebook I got a similar message:


Logging into the notifications page, sure enough, most of my alerts had been reset so that I had to change THIRTY-TWO...(32) email alerts to "off".

Email alerts don't pose privacy problems as such; just annoying alerts (although if you use Facebook at work, such excessive alerts could be picked up by your IT/HR department so they can detect your activity). But the technical glitch does make you think of more serious scenarios, namely the loss of privacy settings. Does Facebook have these backed up? What if all privacy settings were suddenly reset and your profile was exposed to more people than you'd intended -- even though you, as a responsible and privacy-conscious Facebook user, had painstakingly set up your Facebook privacy profile?

I'm interested in hearing what Facebook has to say about it. In the meantime, I'm doing a screen shot or noting down my current privacy settings and double-checking a few things.

Monday 24 November 2008

Teacher dismissed after Facebook faux pas

A North Carolina teacher complaining on her Facebook profile of working "in the ghetto of Charlotte" was suspended last week and risks being dismissed. The move has prompted teachers in the area to revise their policies on staff's online behaviour. The teacher did not mean for her flippant remark to be viewed by all and sundry, but it was uncovered after a search of teachers in the area.

Juror dismissed after asking friends to help make a decision!

All right, out of all the stupid things we've heard people do this week, this one takes the cake. A juror involved in a British child abduction and sexual assault case asked her Facebook friends to help make her decision!

Do these people not realise you aren't allowed to discuss these things even verbally, let alone on a public website? Geez!

Apparently, the woman said: "I don't know which way to go, so I'm holding a poll." She had not even turned on Facebook privacy settings.

Lady, check out the Facebook settings, sure, but don't risk contempt of court in the first place!

Saturday 22 November 2008

Inviting the whole world

A girl's 16th birthday party was ruined when 60 youths gatecrashed the private event after reading about it on Facebook, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The owner of the south London Baba Foundation community centre - which doubles as a restaurant - said he was horrified when the massive gang appeared outside after reading about the party on Facebook.

Daniel Sisilu said he 'blamed himself' for the trouble last Saturday after putting only one bouncer on the door.

He said he only agreed to the party because he was friend's with the teenage girl's mother.

He said: "I blame myself and I totally regret this. But I've been totally had.

"If you put an invite on Facebook then you are inviting the whole world to come along."


Source: The Daily Telegraph

Events on Facebook are a handy way to coordinate parties and get-togethers. But many events are not made closed, meaning the details are technically readable by all and sundry. If you're a member of a network, your event may even be accessible via the network's home page!

Friday 21 November 2008

Your friends' applications are sucking your data!

Sounds like a long-winded B-grade horror movie title, doesn't it? Your friends' applications are sucking your data! But these third-party applications are very likely siphoning personal info from your profile, if you haven't adjusted privacy settings.

Confused? It's like this: each time your friends add an application, your info could be shared with developers whose applications you haven't even installed! This even extends to things like the type of relationship you're looking for, religious views, even your Wall!

Granted, not all these are on by default. But it shows how much Facebook developers can (and I hate this term but I'm going to use it) drill down to minute detail. Think of what marketers can do with this data!

To find out what info you're sharing, go to the Application Privacy page (under Privacy), and look at What Other Users Can See via the Facebook Platform. You can see a list of things that you can or can't share:


  • Profile Picture
  • Basic Info
  • Personal info (activities, interests, etc.)
  • Current location (i.e. town, city etc)
  • Education history
  • Employment history
  • Profile status
  • Wall
  • Notes
  • Groups I belong to
  • Events I'm invited to
  • My Photos
  • Photos of me
  • Relationship status
  • Online presence
  • What type of relationship I'm looking for
  • Which gender I'm interested in
  • Who I'm in a relationship with
  • Religious views

Tick or untick as appropriate. As you can see, you have no choice but to share your name, network and list of friends.

If you want absolutely nothing shared, then underneath this box, you may see "Do not share any information about me through the Facebook API". But very likely, if you've added any applications, this will be grayed out. Click on "Why can't I see this?" and you'll see this explanation:

You are unable to fully opt out of sharing information through Facebook Platform because you are currently using applications built on Platform. To enable this option, you need to remove any applications you have added, and remove your permissions to all external applications that you may have used.

Basically, this means you'll need to uninstall all the applications in order to turn off all sharing.

Thursday 20 November 2008

Deleting applications: Are they really gone?

Facebook has lots of fun third-party applications you can add to your profile. Where you've travelled, IQ tests, movies and books you've read, games, quizzes and so on. If, for some reason, you no longer want these applications, you can click the Applications tab at the bottom of any Facebook page (once logged in) and delete or block as appropriate.

So, problem solved, huh? You won't get bombarded with vampire spam or endless quiz invitations. Well, not really. Every application I've uninstalled and then reinstalled, with no exception, has remembered my previous scores, settings and personal information I've inputted. The Trip Advisor map remembers the cities I've pinned, the IQ Test app remembers my IQ, even the Hatching Eggs remembers what eggs I've send and received. Nothing's really been deleted. It's the equivalent of deleting a desktop shortcut icon but not the application itself.

This is a serious risk to privacy. When you install third-party applications, you really are adhering to privacy policies outside of Facebook. Rather than add them willy-nilly, it's essential to read individual privacy policy statements. Can't find any? Then seriously think of the ramifications of adding the application. If it's just a game, then it's not so bad. But all the books and TV shows you've read and watched? Can that info be deleted?

Facebook's privacy policy states:

...third party developers who have created and operate Platform Applications ("Platform Developers"), may also have access to your personal information (excluding your contact information) if you permit Platform Applications to access your data. Before allowing any Platform Developer to make any Platform Application available to you, Facebook requires the Platform Developer to enter into an agreement which, among other things, requires them to respect your privacy settings and strictly limits their collection, use and storage of your information. However, while we have undertaken contractual and technical steps to restrict possible misuse of such information by such Platform Developers, we of course cannot and do not guarantee that all Platform Developers will abide by such agreements.

So, it can't guarantee your info will be used ethically. And each time you add an application you're allowing it to access your data; you have little choice.

Saturday 8 November 2008

Relationship status: aargh!


On Facebook, there's a place where you can fill in profile information such as your relationship status.

By default, any change in the relationship status is relayed on the News Feed so everyone else is alerted to it. A friend was once surprised they hadn't heard about a change in relationship status because he "didn't see it appear on Facebook". This is because alerts had been turned off!

It's kind of sad that people think they can only find out about big upheavals in people's personal lives through the Facebook feeds. In a sad and recent case, which is not Facebook's fault, a man was sentenced to life after murdering his wife when she changed her status to 'single'. The man has been dubbed the 'Facebook killer', but I'm not keen on how the media portrays it as all Facebook's fault -- clearly, other dynamics were at work; the man was on drugs at the time, he was bitter, he had made threatening phone calls.

But you know, it's best to make sure those status updates aren't relayed to all and sundry (find it under Privacy > News Feed and Wall. Uncheck that box!). And if you don't get along with your ex, delete them from your friends list for goodness sake!

Bono and bikinis - another privacy warning


Cheeky pictures of U2 lead singer Bono and several bikini-clad babes made their way around Facebook after one of the girls made all the photos available to everyone in her network. What was her 'network'? Oh, only one of the biggest cities on the entire planet... New York! That's why we don't recommend being in a Facebook network at all. When you join a network, Facebook changes your settings by default so that people in that network have access to your profile. Dip into the privacy settings to make sure only your friends can see the information you're disclosing on your profile.

Airline staff sacked after Facebook insults

Thirteen staff at Virgin Atlantic were sacked for making disrespectful comments about passengers and derogatory allegations about poor safety standards on public areas of the Facebook social networking site. Less than a week later, British Airways staff were reprimanded for whingeing about "annoying" and "smelly" passengers.

The events highlight how companies are realising how powerful the web is at shaping reputations, as this Economist article, Losing Face, explains.

No doubt PR companies who specialise in mediating and monitoring how brands are represented by bloggers and denizens of social networking sites are jumping at the chance to promote their own 'damage control' services.

Clearly, companies haven't been doing more to let their staff know what is and isn't acceptable in the first place? Every workplace has an internet usage policy, but it seems that people assume it's switched off when they leave the office, or they forget that things they post online can be traced.

After the Virgin Atlantic sackings, the company posted on its official fan page:

"Virgin Atlantic has been made aware of some malicious comments that have been made on a social networking site by a small number of its staff. The airline has started an immediate disciplinary investigation. We do not tolerate any criticism of our passengers or industry-leading safety standards and we are taking this matter very seriously."