With the recent escapade of the change of Facebook terms [Consumerist Article]...then no change...then plans of change in the future...,the issue of privacy is once again brought to the front of our minds.
I recently read an article that revealed how people use Facebook to extort money off others. All it involves is creating a fake profile, adding people to your friend list (and also their friends because people are more likely to trust you if you have their friends aswell), socialising using information from their wall and finally the "drop" - asking for money to meet up or for some other crazy untrue request.
IMO I think the blame should not be put only on the scammers but on the people who are misguided enough to add them in the first place, and then, give them money! But by taking a couple of steps back to look at the whole picture, we see that Facebook is the culprit here. They have created an environment where scammers have many easy targets. Thanks to that little 'People you may know' box, people are now adding friends of friends...of friends. It was only recently I received a friend request from friend of a friend who I had not met in real life. Her reasoning to add me is as follows:
"Hiya, I don't know ya, but I'll add ya coz I like ur pic"
:spider: :thud: :spider:
(words cannot describe what I was feeling when I saw that request)
Social networking sites made it 'ok' to essentially share all your info with your friends.
Unfortunately, the definition of a friend is wildly vague.
My view of Facebook's definition of 'friend': n 1: a person you know well and regard with affection and trust; (definition from definr.com)
Unfortunately, many people have people on their 'friend list' who they don't know well.
Users' definition of 'Facebook friend' (or maybe im being too harsh on Facebook...ok a 'Social Network friend'): A friend on facebook but not in real life.
"You're my facebook friend, not my real friend" (definition from urbandictionary.com)
With these conflicting definitions of 'friend', privacy at the moment in my view, has been not adjusted correctly. So, should we blame people for adding non-friends to their friend lists, or Facebook for not adjusting privacy settings for people's true use of Facebook? I don't know...
***
Now, even the Windows Live network has joined in. The latest version of Windows Live Messenger (v14 or 2009) shows 'What people have been up to'. To be quite honest, I don't really want to know what people have been up to!
Even worse is that, although you can adjust your privacy settings for various features, the actual options page is pretty damn complicated - too complicated for someone who just wants to chat to friends (or should I say...'friends'). People will end up leaving the settings on default, but as explained previously, Windows Live's definition of a friend may be wildly different from people's contact lists. The result would be that people who aren't really your friends get to know much more information about yourself than what you'd feel comfortable with.
People do not want to have to dig through mountains of privacy pages.
I think there should be a simple privacy level slider (a bit like Win7s new UAC control slider) with common privacy configurations - Ranging from paranoid to open (the default should be somewhere closer to paranoid!). For advanced users (or for people who actually have the time!) an advanced page to further tweak your settings should be offered.
I fear that people may try to use this new 'What's New' list maliciously. I can see people uploading malicious files to their Skydrive followed by a message asking people to "Check this out!".
Anyway, if you have made it this far - well done, have a cookie!
reo:
Thanks
honda
I recently read an article that revealed how people use Facebook to extort money off others. All it involves is creating a fake profile, adding people to your friend list (and also their friends because people are more likely to trust you if you have their friends aswell), socialising using information from their wall and finally the "drop" - asking for money to meet up or for some other crazy untrue request.
IMO I think the blame should not be put only on the scammers but on the people who are misguided enough to add them in the first place, and then, give them money! But by taking a couple of steps back to look at the whole picture, we see that Facebook is the culprit here. They have created an environment where scammers have many easy targets. Thanks to that little 'People you may know' box, people are now adding friends of friends...of friends. It was only recently I received a friend request from friend of a friend who I had not met in real life. Her reasoning to add me is as follows:
"Hiya, I don't know ya, but I'll add ya coz I like ur pic"
:spider: :thud: :spider:
(words cannot describe what I was feeling when I saw that request)
Social networking sites made it 'ok' to essentially share all your info with your friends.
Unfortunately, the definition of a friend is wildly vague.
My view of Facebook's definition of 'friend': n 1: a person you know well and regard with affection and trust; (definition from definr.com)
Unfortunately, many people have people on their 'friend list' who they don't know well.
Users' definition of 'Facebook friend' (or maybe im being too harsh on Facebook...ok a 'Social Network friend'): A friend on facebook but not in real life.
"You're my facebook friend, not my real friend" (definition from urbandictionary.com)
With these conflicting definitions of 'friend', privacy at the moment in my view, has been not adjusted correctly. So, should we blame people for adding non-friends to their friend lists, or Facebook for not adjusting privacy settings for people's true use of Facebook? I don't know...
***
Now, even the Windows Live network has joined in. The latest version of Windows Live Messenger (v14 or 2009) shows 'What people have been up to'. To be quite honest, I don't really want to know what people have been up to!
Even worse is that, although you can adjust your privacy settings for various features, the actual options page is pretty damn complicated - too complicated for someone who just wants to chat to friends (or should I say...'friends'). People will end up leaving the settings on default, but as explained previously, Windows Live's definition of a friend may be wildly different from people's contact lists. The result would be that people who aren't really your friends get to know much more information about yourself than what you'd feel comfortable with.
People do not want to have to dig through mountains of privacy pages.
I think there should be a simple privacy level slider (a bit like Win7s new UAC control slider) with common privacy configurations - Ranging from paranoid to open (the default should be somewhere closer to paranoid!). For advanced users (or for people who actually have the time!) an advanced page to further tweak your settings should be offered.
I fear that people may try to use this new 'What's New' list maliciously. I can see people uploading malicious files to their Skydrive followed by a message asking people to "Check this out!".
Anyway, if you have made it this far - well done, have a cookie!
reo:Thanks
honda
