Posts Tagged ‘facebook’

We’ve been talking a lot lately about Facebook, particularly as Facebook aims to improve its security and privacy measures. A new article from Switched has laid out 5 common Facebook social engineering scams and how to avoid them. It’s a great primer on how to avoid being duped by any scan.

Aside from never clicking on suspicious or shortened links from friends (unless you expand them first), the article outlines these 5 common scams and how to avoid them:

1. 419 Scams - your friends’ accounts may be hijacked if you receive any message from them claiming to be desperate for cash. Always talk to your friend by some non-web-based means to confirm if they really are in need first!
2. Hidden Fee Apps – You should never have to submit your cell phone number or other personal information in order to unlock features or receive quiz results from any application
3. Fake Login Pages - they may look real, but if you get an email asking you to log into Facebook, make sure you’re actually at Facebook, not following some link (particularly if the link leads to anywhere other than Facebook.com).
4. Malware Links - If you receive messages from friends with links, beware. There is a chance that account has been hijacked and you’re being sent to malicious sites that could then steal any personal info on your computer.
5. Facebook Apps that are Malware – Yes, even the applications themselves can be dangerous! Some may even mimic valid applications, sending you realistic messages such as a notification that someone has left a message on your wall. Like with #3, their goal is to get you to a fake login page. So, look for anything weird in these emails (odd icons, poor grammar, invalid links).

There are many websites featuring this list. For more comprehensive details about these scams and how to avoid them, you can check out PC World. Another variant of the same theme can be found at CSO Online, which also includes tips to avoid Twitter scams.

If you do find yourself a victim of a scam on Facebook, it’s best to alert Facebook administrators with all of the details of the scam.

In August, we wrote that the Canadian Government had given Facebook 30 days to comply with 24 aspects of Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act or enforcement by the Federal Court may be requested.

On August 27, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner held a news conference to announce progress in the Facebook investigation. Facebook has also released a news brief.

Facebook has announced that it will be making changes to its API, the interface third-party services use to request information from Facebook and its users. The changes would require application developers to specify which pieces of information they would like to access in a user profile and why. Users will also be able to deny access to specific pieces of information. Up until now, the nearly 1 million application developers had almost unrestricted access to profile information.

As many have rightly pointed out, it seems contradictory to participate in a social network and to then attempt to restrict access to some or all of your personal information.

To us at the Office, users should have the chance to find out what information is being collected by the social networking site or a third-party application, and for what reason. Third-party applications have long been a concern to members of the privacy advocacy community, since they have had relatively free access to the information stored in your Facebook profile.

I’m incredibly happy that the Canadian government undertook this privacy investigation. After all, the changes that Canada is requiring of Facebook will not only make the site safer for Canadians but for all Facebook users. These changes, and others requested by the Commissioner, may take months to implement. That said, the Privacy Commissioner is “satisfied Facebook is on the right path to addressing the privacy gaps on its site.”

For a full outline of the issues that the Canadian government brought up, and Facebook’s response, read here.

Last month, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner released a statement about Facebook and its compliance with Canadian privacy laws. The statement is the result of a study into allegations by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic that Facebook was not complying with 24 aspects of Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. These aspects included default privacy settings, collection and use of personal information, and disclosure of personal information to third parties. Some of the findings concluded that the allegations were not well-founded, while others were supported.

As a result of the report, Canada has released its Report of Findings and its request that Facebook strengthen its privacy protections. The press briefing included some praise for Facebook’s current privacy measures, though many areas were identified for improvement.

Areas of requested improvement include:

• Improving information about privacy practices (example: information on deactivating vs deleting an account)
• Improving safeguards that restrict outside developers from accessing unnecessary profile information
• Deleting personal information after it is no longer necessary to meet appropriate needs (to comply with Canadian law)

Facebook made some improvements to their privacy measures when provided with an interim report; they now have 30 days (from July 16) to respond to the full report.

Facebook has agreed to adopt many of the recommendations stemming from the Privacy Commissioner’s investigation or, in some cases, has proposed reasonable alternatives to the measures recommended. However, there remain a number of recommendations that Facebook has not yet agreed to implement.

The Privacy Commissioner is empowered to go to Federal Court to seek that the recommendations be enforced. So, it may be that Canada’s report helps to strengthen Facebook privacy standards for all Facebook users!

Via internet evolution

This week, British Columbia had its first ever Anti-Bullying Day. All across BC, people wore pink to stand up to bullying – both online and offline. 1 in 4 youth in British Columbia have been victims of cyberbullying and 1 in 5 and bullied others! 80% say people bully others online because it’s earlier to do. Read more here.

We’ve talked in the past about social networking, privacy and cyberbullying, with Facebook being sited often as a platform used by cyberbullies.

Today I stumbled across a video about how to configure your privacy settings on Facebook – a video teachers may wish to share with their students, or parents with their kids:

For resources on bullying for parents and teachers, check out the list available on the BC Ministry of Education.

Via SafeKids

A number of great articles have come to the forefront in the news of late about the risks of social networking and privacy. Specifically, privacy issues that are the result of users (mostly younger people) sharing too much information online.

Many teens would be astonished to know how much information about themselves that someone could glean from their Facebook profile, for example. Or how much additional information can be gleaned by using free tools like Canada411.com. Phone numbers, home addresses, schools – all of this information poses a security risk to young people when posted online. Not to mention all the photos. Identity theft becomes an issue, in addition to risks to ones reputation or even personal safety.

comScore indicates that nearly 17 million Canadians are on Facebook, and 4.5 million are on MySpace. The Globe and Mail recently completed a 2 month investigation of social networking sites to prove a point about the information a casual observer can gather on an individual.

Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens are Really Doing Online, believes that teens are pre-conditioned to sharing personal information because of a level of openness that is reflected to them in reality television. Attention is sought after, and part of that involves openly sharing minute details of one’s life, and privacy goes out the window.

That said, somewhere in the area of 30-40% of Facebook users actually read and modify their privacy settings, opposed to less than 1% on most other websites. In terms of privacy, 100% of people need to be aware of the privacy options available to them, and also of the risks associated with exposing certain types of information.

A whole new industry has sprung up to help people clean up information they have shared online. For example, parents will hire a company to clean up the social networking profiles of their kids as they graduate from university. Research indicates that 77% of employers check social networking profiles, so this isn’t a bad idea.

Continue reading more here or read about 5 ways to save face with Facebook here.