Posts Tagged ‘privacy’

With the most recent update to Facebook privacy settings (December 2009), there are some new things you should know and steps you should take to safeguard your privacy. Though a “wizard” guided Facebook users through the changes after the new settings rolled out, several settings were changed by default and were not included in the wizard. Many of these changes made information public by default, which is not something many users would want (and which the FTC is complaining about).

There are 4 levels of privacy in Facebook, with “everyone” meaning that all your information is available to search engines. The most private setting is “Only Friends”.

In order to review your privacy settings, go to Settings > Privacy Settings in Facebook. You will want to review the privacy settings on all the first 4 sections. The website “Make Use Of” suggests the following actions to review your settings:

• Create / Make use of Friend Lists
• Control Search Visibility
• Control Who Sees Photos
• Control Wall Notifications
• Control Relationship Status / Contact Information Visibility

The new Facebook privacy settings offer a lot more options to protect your information at a granular level if you take the time to alter your settings. So, make yourself aware of the options and choose wisely!

Via makeuseof

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

The Canadian government ran a video competition for youth called the 2008 My Privacy & Me National Video Competition. The seven finalists, and the winning entry, have been announced! Each video tries to teach youth how technology affects privacy in some way.

The first place video, made by the John F. Ross CVI school in Ontario, was entitled ‘A Lesson in Privacy’:

The video shows a little turtle signing up for Facebook, providing lots of private information that people shouldn’t share online. A little snail tries to teach the turtle a lesson in online privacy. The 7 finalists can all be viewed here.

If you’re an educator or parent, perhaps the videos would be a good tool to illustrate the topic of privacy. Or perhaps you can use it as inspiration to start your own video project! Also check out the My Privacy Quiz, to see how well you know your privacy rights in Canada, and the top 10 things you can do to protect your privacy.

Via privacy commissioner blog

It was Data Privacy Day on January 28th and Canada’s Privacy Commissioner put together The Top 10 Ways Your Privacy Is Threatened in order to commemorate the occasion.

Data Privacy Day was marked on January 28th in Canada, the United States and in 27 European countries. It is a day meant to remind us that data privacy is important and that we should all be better advocates for it. As the Canadian government notes:

“Every day, we see headlines about sophisticated phishing attacks, enormous data breaches, in both the public and private sectors, and the proliferation of identity theft. It is no coincidence that as businesses began to recognize the immense potential of personal data in their efforts to connect with customers, so too did criminals begin to realize its value.”

Here is what the Canadian government suggests are the 10 ways your privacy is threatened:

1. People need to stand up for their privacy as a right
2. Information flows too freely with privacy protection laws being unequal around the world
3. Identity theft is a lucrative business
4. Cybercrime and physical data theft (laptop theft, unshredded documents)
5. Data breaches in all sectors and a lack of reporting requirements – so you may never know
6. Businesses collecting, but not protecting, data
7. Governments collecting data for national security and public safety
8. Information posted on social networking sites without reviewing privacy policies or privacy settings
9. Information you submit to new applications, online games or online shopping
10. Surveillance cameras, swipe cards, Internet searches

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.