Assignment #8 - Privacy Issues in a Digital World

The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

By Sarah Perez

by jurvetson #1. Who can see the things you share?

Retrieved from creative commons

#1. Who can see the things you share?

Creative Commons Attribution license by g-hat

With Facebook the default for your status updates are set for “Everyone”. So anyone who uses Facebook can see your status updates. To make your status updates, links, photos, and videos more private you can go to “Posts by Me” under the “Privacy Settings” on your Profile page and change the setting to “Only Friends”, then only your friends will see your status updates, links, photos, and videos.

#2. Who can see your personal info?

But if you want friends of your friends to be able to see what you have posted, linked to and created in a video then change it to “Friends of Friends”. There are other options as ways to set your settings to specify who gets what information. Go to the link below to read the article and find out how to make privacy changes to your Facebook account. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_3_facebook_settings_every_user_should_check_now...

by fensterbme  A Creative Commons Attribution licensed photo

 
FACEBOOK DOES NOT INDEX ALL YOUR INFORMATION ON GOOGLE. “Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your names and see a link to your Facebook profile.” They cannot see much. Only when you accept them as a friend can they then see what you allow them to see, set by your chosen settings. However, if you have checked the box next to “Allow” on the Search Settings page, you have given “search engines the ability to access and index any information you’ve marked as visible by “Everyone”. Follow the instructions from the reading to keep data private from search engines. 4 simple steps will do this for you. Again read the article by clicking on the link at the end of this section.

“Note: Other resources on Facebook's latest changes worth reading include MakeUseOf's 8 Steps Toward Regaining your Privacy, 17 steps to protect your privacy from Inside Facebook, the ACLU's article examining the changes, and DotRights.org's comprehensive analysis of the new settings. If you're unhappy enough to protest Facebook's privacy update, you can sign ACLU's petition. The FTC is also looking into the matter thanks to a complaint filed by a coalition of privacy groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. You can add your voice to the list of complaints here.”

readwriteweb.com/archives/the_3_facebook_settings_every_user_should_check_now...

Many users of Facebook feel like this: “I have nothing personal in my updates that I’d not want the whole world to see.” Posted by ghanbuntu on this articles comment section.

I think that is the key – just don’t post anything that you will be ashamed of or that you don’t want your friends, friends of your friends or everyone to see. There is more to it than this though as you will read coming up …

“How Privacy Vanishes Online” by Steve Lohr

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/technology/17privacy.html?pagewanted=print

This article is just a reminder that I need to go to my social networks and make my privacy settings more likely to keep my information private. It also reminds me that I need to make some other changes to my profile and not tell so much personal data. Birthdays can give a lot away, books I’ve read and want to read tell a person a lot about me. OK you think this is what I want to do, this is the whole purpose but we live in a world of not so nice people. People who can figure out where you live by the map you place on Classmates.com, there are people who hate gay people and if you are a gay person and the hater can tell this by what you have posted on your social network (or they think they can) you could be a target to a really crazy person. Don’t get scared. I’m not being pessimistic, I’m being realistic.

Netflix has this database of your movie reviews if you do the reviews and they keep records of what movies are in your queue and what you watch. This data can be analyzed to identify patterns in your behavior. OK, not bad because they know what they can offer you that you will probably be interested in viewing. Using the same principle though, “a pool of information about each individual can form a distinctive “social signature”.” Tight privacy settings are the security tool you have with social networks. You just have to use them.

by Melanie O’Rourke – Attribution license from Creative Commons

Judgment is an issue, when you have linked to others, or applications or you have become a “fan” of groups, etc. Even when one of your goofy friends uses the “F” word and posts half naked photos of her/himself on Blacks Beach, you know the people I’m talking about. The younger sister of a friend who posts a close up of just her new bathing suit top, with her body in it, is no longer allowed on FB wall. Those people will turn your other people who you want to be friends with – right off (or maybe not). Judgment is important because future human resource departments and employers may be looking. Past employers may be looking the day before they are to give your new potential employer a recommendation (or not). I know I have had to block some “friends” and some “friend’s applications”. First of all, I have no interest myself and secondly I sure don’t want my friends and family and future friends to think I am interested in some of these applications that Facebook offers.


Another article to read for more on why it is so important to guard your privacy online is here:

“Privacy is dead, and social media hold smoking gun” By Pete Cashmore

http://www.edition.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/10/28/cashmore.online.privacy

Applications settings are where “quizzes” are located. Quizzes can get your information, even if you use privacy settings to limit access. See the article: “ What Facebook Quizzes Know About You” by Sarah Perez

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_facebook_quizzes_know_about_you.php

Retrieved from Creative Commons - Attribution license

“Everything on your profile is made available to the developers when your friend takes a quiz.” Wow! This is very disheartening. I guess I will be blocking more friends. I actually have to take the few minutes it will take to make these changes to better protect myself. Facebook is not looking out for me or for YOU. “Facebook also doesn’t even screen developers for trustworthiness, not do they require the developer to comply with a privacy policy.” See http://www.readwritewne.com/archives/does-that-facebook_app_have_a_privacy_policy_probably_npt.php

UPDATE YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS.

Social security numbers can be found out by experts – expert criminals who are experts in technology. SS numbers identify and authenticate banking credit card transactions and other transactions online. The best thing to remember is that when you’re doing stuff online think of it as if you are doing it in public – because more and more you actually are.

Google: Privacy Is Alive and Well by Alma Whitten

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/privacy-facebook-gmail-technology-security-google.html

This article tells us about how control means choice and transparency and how Google offers this control. Google gives options for using their products. They let you know what information they collect when you use their products and services. Google feels that if they do not offer ways to control use then users will not use their services. Google Dashboard is where users go to set their privacy settings. Ads Preferences Manager is the place to go to “opt-out” of “interest based ads”. Love that!

Google’s Chrome Browser allows users to browse privately with the “incognito mode.” Google is continually trying to find new and better ways to help you to keep what you want private – private.

This article just below this paragraph is just one example of how mean people can be and how the issues of the internet are many and it will be decades, if ever before all the kinks are worked out in a way that will secure privacy, safety and make it a viable (“having a reasonable chance of succeeding”) place to be, even profitable.

“Italian judge says profit behind Google verdict”

by Colleen Barry”http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D9F1NQJ03.htm

How does the internet impact privacy? If you want to expose yourself you can do it on the internet. Privacy settings and the way we use the internet can help us be private about ourselves but I don’t know if it is truly possible. People can find out where I live, where I work, have worked, how long I was unemployed during the early 80’s. Posts I have placed in newspapers in California, Florida and Michigan appear under Google. Donations I’ve made to non-profit organizations show up in Google. Friends of yours show up when you Google your name if you don’t have the correct settings placed on your Profile. You can be judged harshly. The internet impacts privacy in way too many ways. I have covered a lot herein but I’m sure I’ve missed a lot as well. It’s HUGE!

“I can see your home from here” by Lamerie
This is from a Google Search of an address.

Is Italy’s prosecution of Google fair? Where’s the line between protecting privacy and promoting the free exchange of information? When is it censorship? The profit part of their actions is what the problem was, as seen from some people’s point of view. It is totally unfair to treat disabled wrongly. Unfair and wrongly being words that some people do not acknowledge or know the meaning of and what harm the actions of these words cause. The line should is on the side of promoting the free exchange of information, especially when profit is possible. I disagree with any free exchange of information being done when it is obvious exploitation of the disabled, unless it is the information that the disabled person able to consent has consented to exchange. I think there might be too much internet freedom as it now stands. Everything will change and then change back again – as the years go by – just watch and see.

by Laremie 

Question? Why do they want this information? Answer: To try to sell you stuff.

Can you stop them from getting information? You can try.

What might future employers learn about you from the internet? What your interests are, who your “friends” are, where you shop, party, study, your interests, your age, your life.

How much control do you have over a Google search about you? A bit.

See http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/12/privacy-facebook-gmail-technology-security-google.html

. . . and other links mentioned in this blog post.

Discuss whether people who are now growing up with the internet may have different expectations about privacy.

I think that people now growing up with the internet will expect that privacy will be less and less of a problem, as new tools to protect privacy are developed. These same people will be developing these new tools and new programs. The problem I see is that the alternate developers of new and better ways to steal privacy and identities will also be developed. Some people will just don’t give it a thought at all either way.

How do these privacy concerns relate to issues we learned about in the Long Tail, the internet as a democratizing tool?

The privacy concerns relate to the issues in the Long Tail in that everyone everywhere can learn about you and your identity. A friend has a child who is going to Europe soon on a summer vacation for a couple of weeks. I know this young person has been communicating with many people in this country, that this person is about to visit. People this person does not know have been talking to this person via a social network. One of the same social networks I use and that is how I know what is being communicated and the photos that are being shared. I worry about this young person. The people that plan to meet this person in Europe may not even be who they say they are. They know a lot of information about this young person. They know what this person has done, what school this person plans to go to next fall, what car is driven, this young person’s fashion sense, and social groups. Way too much for a young person to let strangers know. I am going to block this person just because I am afraid the postings will stop and I would prefer to stop them first. This is extreme. But really – the internet offers young people the freedom to express themselves YES but to what extent and to what expense. I hope it’s all good.

I mentioned something related to this to my friend, and that friend acted like I was crazy. The response I got was a laugh and then a frown and “its fine.” This friend feels that this young person knows what they are doing. How could this be possible? The reason my friend feels this way is because people think that identity theft, victimization and other negative things cannot happen to them. Young people trust everyone else who looks young and hip. (I was young and trusted others). I think that the internet gives predators a place to post a young and hip picture and that person is not always who they say they are. This is what worries me the most about young people who do not learn the steps they need to take when using the internet. This class has given me a new way to look at what I do on the internet and I hope that the young people in this class take what they have learned and use it to protect themselves and their privacy.

I also want to say that I think this course should be a requirement to all incoming freshman at any college, just as I think that all students should be required to take an Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies Course. These are the ways of life today and these two courses are Intro courses that will benefit any student or anyone else in life as it is today in the cyberspace digital age.