What irritates me about Facebook is there's:
1) no easy way to delete my own content apart from clicking Edit > Delete on every post. When you have literally hundreds and possibly thousands of posts, this is more than a chore. You might be tempted to recruit professional Facebook Deleters to do the job for you.
2) no way to track the reams of content I've posted beyond my own profile. If I make a comment on Dave's profile or on the Muppets message board that I later think is inaccurate, how can I find a list of messages I've written and delete them? And what if someone is an impressionistic 16-year-old who forms some dangerous opinions which, in hindsight, they realise are ignorant and detrimental to future employment prospects? How can they find out where they posted the content so it won't be tied to their profile?
Facebook makes it so hard to do, and there is barely any information on deleting posts. So what can we do? Any suggestions on easy ways to manage where our own content is going and where?
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Facebook content viewable when logged out
Go to Facebook's simple, uncluttered homepage and you'd be forgiven for thinking that you can't see any of the content within the site unless you log in. Not so. A lot of information on Facebook is actually accessible through a web search (such as Google).
You'd be surprised at just how much information on Facebook is available to the wider public. While logged out of Facebook, I was able to find the following:
People's search results page (see above). This may include a list of your friends, as well as your photograph. Not only that, but you may be able to see the things that person is a "fan" of - there are a number of Facebook "Pages" dedicated to musicians, movies, brands and so on, and whatever Page you've joined is listed here. You can tell Facebook not to include your name and photo in search engine results via the privacy settings, and you can also choose not to have your friends and fan Pages viewable. But not all people do this.
Groups and Pages. Although surnames are not included in Groups and Pages when you click through to a search result, you can still view the content posted to a Group's website (such as the Jeff Buckley for Christmas Number 1 group). If people choose to let people find them via Google and the like, you can click through to their search results page (such as the one above), and this will include their surname.
Applications. Popular third-party widgets that people add to their Facebook profiles, such as games, are searchable. You can view the Application's Facebook page without having to log in, and see a list of fans. Again, if people's search results pages have been made public, you can click through to see their surname and possibly a list of their friends and fan Pages.
Photos. If you know the website address for a particular photo album, you'll be able to click through to view it without having to log in. This is not necessarily because the person creating the album has chosen to make it available to "Everyone" - I'll go into more detail on this later.
Trainee cops trawl web for knife gang evidence
Rookie cops in Scotland have been scouring Facebook and other social networking sites to find pictures of youths wielding violent weapons like knives, in a bid to cut teen violence.
Much of the time the young people, evidently unaware that their acts of bravado are available to all and sundry, are posing in a public place such as a park, which is an illegal offence. If they are at home, the cops pay a visit to the teen and their parents.
Constable Holly McGee, 18, told BBC Newsbeat: "We're looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades. We take the date, the time, detail of what's in the photograph, [then] a copy of the photograph is printed out and thereafter it's all sent to the gangs task force unit."
Operation Access, as the project is called, has led to the questioning of 400 teenagers and has been declared a success.
Source: BBC Newsbeat
Much of the time the young people, evidently unaware that their acts of bravado are available to all and sundry, are posing in a public place such as a park, which is an illegal offence. If they are at home, the cops pay a visit to the teen and their parents.
Constable Holly McGee, 18, told BBC Newsbeat: "We're looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades. We take the date, the time, detail of what's in the photograph, [then] a copy of the photograph is printed out and thereafter it's all sent to the gangs task force unit."
Operation Access, as the project is called, has led to the questioning of 400 teenagers and has been declared a success.
Source: BBC Newsbeat
Friday, 9 January 2009
What Facebook collects about you
Facebook's privacy policy is written in plain English, but there are still a few vague phrases kicking around. So, what stuff does Facebook hold on you?
Apart from the usual stuff all websites know about you when you visit (like the numerical identifier, called the IP address, that traces you back to your internet provider) Facebook says it holds personal information you "knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Website use information collected by us as you interact with our Website". This essentially means everything you say and do on Facebook is collected, because everything you do on there is a knowing disclosure - right?
It also says "you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, schools attended and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us". Wow. I certainly haven't told it all of this stuff. I think I registered before you had to specify your gender, so it doesn't know this, either. If people make all of this stuff available for even close friends to view (and say a friend's account gets hacked), it's perfect fodder for an identity thief.
You also need to provide Facebook with your date of birth, because you need to say you're over 13 to use the service. I always provide my date of birth to identify myself when I call a bank.
Note: All this doesn't even apply to the third-party applications that you might have installed. As soon as you give them permission to install themselves on to your Facebook profile, they have access to your data, too. And in an earlier post we discussed Beacon, the feature that broadcast certain actions on third-party websites to your friends that you may have preferred to keep private.
Third parties that you haven't even given permission to access your profile can access aggregated information about you. It's not personally identifiable, but your actions are contributing to Facebook's bottom line. "We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or film and personalising advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you with Facebook. We believe this benefits you."
We believe this benefits Facebook, too, n'est-ce pas?
Oh, and most creepy of all, "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile."
Huh? This is probably something Facebook will focus on more in the future, as information becomes more easily tied to individuals. Does this mean Facebook will be able to associate your profile with, say, a mention of you in a local newspaper? When you list your blog on your profile, will it scan the blog and tie it up with your likes/dislikes? And as Microsoft has a small stake in Facebook, and you list your Hotmail address to sign up - where will that end? Facebook says: "Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your Profile (e.g. removing photo tag links)."
What I don't like about Facebook is it doesn't make it easy to delete information about myself. If I need to delete things individually from my Wall, for instance - I can't do multiple deletes. Making it possible is one thing, but it's also quite difficult to do.
Apart from the usual stuff all websites know about you when you visit (like the numerical identifier, called the IP address, that traces you back to your internet provider) Facebook says it holds personal information you "knowingly choose to disclose that is collected by us and Website use information collected by us as you interact with our Website". This essentially means everything you say and do on Facebook is collected, because everything you do on there is a knowing disclosure - right?
It also says "you provide us with certain personal information, such as your name, your email address, your telephone number, your address, your gender, schools attended and any other personal or preference information that you provide to us". Wow. I certainly haven't told it all of this stuff. I think I registered before you had to specify your gender, so it doesn't know this, either. If people make all of this stuff available for even close friends to view (and say a friend's account gets hacked), it's perfect fodder for an identity thief.
You also need to provide Facebook with your date of birth, because you need to say you're over 13 to use the service. I always provide my date of birth to identify myself when I call a bank.
Note: All this doesn't even apply to the third-party applications that you might have installed. As soon as you give them permission to install themselves on to your Facebook profile, they have access to your data, too. And in an earlier post we discussed Beacon, the feature that broadcast certain actions on third-party websites to your friends that you may have preferred to keep private.
Third parties that you haven't even given permission to access your profile can access aggregated information about you. It's not personally identifiable, but your actions are contributing to Facebook's bottom line. "We do this for purposes such as aggregating how many people in a network like a band or film and personalising advertisements and promotions so that we can provide you with Facebook. We believe this benefits you."
We believe this benefits Facebook, too, n'est-ce pas?
Oh, and most creepy of all, "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile."
Huh? This is probably something Facebook will focus on more in the future, as information becomes more easily tied to individuals. Does this mean Facebook will be able to associate your profile with, say, a mention of you in a local newspaper? When you list your blog on your profile, will it scan the blog and tie it up with your likes/dislikes? And as Microsoft has a small stake in Facebook, and you list your Hotmail address to sign up - where will that end? Facebook says: "Where such information is used, we generally allow you to specify in your privacy settings that you do not want this to be done or to take other actions that limit the connection of this information to your Profile (e.g. removing photo tag links)."
What I don't like about Facebook is it doesn't make it easy to delete information about myself. If I need to delete things individually from my Wall, for instance - I can't do multiple deletes. Making it possible is one thing, but it's also quite difficult to do.
Madeliene mayhem
Happy New year! The Facebook Privacy Watch team is back from their break and ready to share more stories for you.
Today's latest? A young UK Conservative party activist bragged on Facebook about dressing up as missing toddler Madeleine McCann at a New Year's bash.
Matthew Lewis was expelled from the political party and apologised "unreservedly" for his action, which may not have been widely discovered had he not boasted about it on the social networking site. His status update attracted many comments including: "Is this a cunning Baldrick style plan to obtain the reward money?"
Today's latest? A young UK Conservative party activist bragged on Facebook about dressing up as missing toddler Madeleine McCann at a New Year's bash.
Matthew Lewis was expelled from the political party and apologised "unreservedly" for his action, which may not have been widely discovered had he not boasted about it on the social networking site. His status update attracted many comments including: "Is this a cunning Baldrick style plan to obtain the reward money?"
Sunday, 7 December 2008
A fool and their phone are soon parted...
When I first joined Facebook I'd sometimes see people join groups with strange names such as: "I lost my digits!" or "Michael's phone got stolen... I need your numbers" or "Digits for Helen please" or "Like a drunken fool, I lost my phone."
I clicked on a few of these groups to see what they were about and invariably they would be about how someone had just been parted with their mobile/cell phone and needed to input everyone's numbers again. The groups would almost always be open and public.
On the surface you'd expect this to be a brilliant way to recruit your friends' numbers. But... all these groups can be seen by anyone! I have no idea who Rell is, but I know his friends and their numbers. Do a search for "lost phone" on Facebook and you'll see groups like: "Hey there I lost all yal numbers" - am loving the reply that says, "u never had mine but its 972-xxx-xxxx."
In the last year or so, I haven't see these groups pop up any more. I figured people had got the message. But today another friend joined a "lost phone" group.
Check it out for yourself. A few enterprising application developers have also conjured up third-party apps to make it "easy" for people to recruit numbers from friends, but I have two quick, ingenious and private ways for you to get those numbers back!
1. Back them up NOW... write them in a book, back up your sim... whatever.
2. If you and your phone get separated, maybe email your friends and get them to email your numbers to you.
Relax! :) Sounds obvious doesn't it. Not for the countless people who've joined someone's "lost phone" group and broadcast their number for you, me, and anyone else who cares to look.
I clicked on a few of these groups to see what they were about and invariably they would be about how someone had just been parted with their mobile/cell phone and needed to input everyone's numbers again. The groups would almost always be open and public.
On the surface you'd expect this to be a brilliant way to recruit your friends' numbers. But... all these groups can be seen by anyone! I have no idea who Rell is, but I know his friends and their numbers. Do a search for "lost phone" on Facebook and you'll see groups like: "Hey there I lost all yal numbers" - am loving the reply that says, "u never had mine but its 972-xxx-xxxx."
In the last year or so, I haven't see these groups pop up any more. I figured people had got the message. But today another friend joined a "lost phone" group.
Check it out for yourself. A few enterprising application developers have also conjured up third-party apps to make it "easy" for people to recruit numbers from friends, but I have two quick, ingenious and private ways for you to get those numbers back!
1. Back them up NOW... write them in a book, back up your sim... whatever.
2. If you and your phone get separated, maybe email your friends and get them to email your numbers to you.
Relax! :) Sounds obvious doesn't it. Not for the countless people who've joined someone's "lost phone" group and broadcast their number for you, me, and anyone else who cares to look.
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Christmas party season means photo albums galore!
Well, the Christmas party season has begun, and the images have started to pour into the Facebook photo album coffers. People, check them out! Not only for the brilliant gossip material, but for evidence of you looking a little worse for wear. No, that's not a Rorschach Blot - it is probably your bum from the office photocopier.
Had coffee today with a former work colleague. "Went to the office Christmas party," she told me. "You've probably seen the pictures that so-and-so put up?" Apparently, there were a few messy ones.
"No, she's not my Facebook friend."
Well, I didn't have to wait long to see her photos, as she'd tagged a mutual friend and her album was accessible by Friends of Friends!
Had coffee today with a former work colleague. "Went to the office Christmas party," she told me. "You've probably seen the pictures that so-and-so put up?" Apparently, there were a few messy ones.
"No, she's not my Facebook friend."
Well, I didn't have to wait long to see her photos, as she'd tagged a mutual friend and her album was accessible by Friends of Friends!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)