It seems that articles are coming out every day about how mostly young people are handing over way too much personal information to, well, everybody. Once that information is online, it’s in the public domain forever. Keep that in mind the next time you post all sorts of mundane personal details that only marketing scum and criminals care about.
What gets me is that young people are particularly vulnerable to Facebook’s “bait and switch” tactics because they may feel they have nothing to lose; they’re broke and innocent. But their identity will travel with them as they acquire wealth, and their loss of innocence won’t be able to protect them from the information that they’re putting on Facebook now because it’s out there for good. They won’t be able to ‘erase it’ later , even if they decide to eventually cancel their accounts.
CLICK HERE TO DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT!
Consumer Reports: Half of Social Network Users are “Oversharing,” Endangering Privacy
Consumer Reports, a longtime trusted name in product ratings and reviews, has today released its annual “State of the Net” report, which finds that over half (52%) of social network users post risky information online. Among the transgressions: using weak passwords, listing full birth dates, ignoring privacy settings and making mention of when you’re away from home, to name a few.
The report looked closely at Facebook and Twitter, two of the top social networks used today, and found that on Facebook, the percentage of those engaged in this type of risky behavior was even higher, at 56%. However, what’s more interesting is how the survey inadvertently reveals that Facebook users clearly have no idea about how much they’re publicly sharing on the network.
…it’s not just the users themselves who are to blame for this “risky” online behavior. The networks have been created so that risk is a factor built into every sharing feature. Facebook especially is now exploiting its earlier, implicit agreement between itself and its users so that people are publicly sharing what they think is private information.
Survey Shows Facebook Users are Clearly Confused
Something else we found decidedly telling regarding this issue is the fact that the reports states 73% of adult Facebook users only shared content with friends but only 42% of users said they customized their privacy settings.
These numbers clearly show the study’s flaws. You can’t just ask Facebook users about their privacy: They’re uninformed.
In December, Facebook made sweeping changes to their default settings, prompting users to accept the new recommended settings or edit those settings to their liking. Those who took Facebook’s recommendations without making any changes immediately began sharing status updates, photos, videos and links publicly, likely without realizing they had done so.
That means that a good many of the 73% of Facebook adults who think they’re sharing just with friends are sadly mistaken. Only those in the 42% who customized their settings (hopefully properly) are actually restricting their content from public view.
