Are Your "Privates" Exposed? The Dirty Secret About Facebook...
Posted by Jody Raines
Feeling a bit vulnerable these days? Are your "privates" exposed?
Whether you have a personal page or a business page on Facebook there are some critical things you need to
be aware of. Recent privacy changes have created the utter chaos and groundswell of discontent that is impacting Facebook.
Recent changes to the privacy settings DO affect you, especially when you think you are 'safe', or 'private'.
In a nutshell, you are not.
Consider, Facebook has a track record of 'adjusting' their privacy settings periodically. Every time the Facebook privacy settings change, your profile is at risk of being exposed.
By continuing to use Facebook, (per the terms of service) you are agreeing to the new terms of service.
Add to this: whatever pictures and content that you've shared, even if you decide to discontinue using facebook and 'deleting' your profile, the content and pictures are still part of the data base that Facebook has become.
A database? Not a social network? Yes, believe it or not, the information that you have voluntarily supplied is now part of a super database that catalogues your 'likes' and interests, your friends, their 'likes' and interests, your family and relations, activities, television shows, movies... the amount of personal information that is now being shared about you is very robust and available to be harvested.
So, how do you protect yourself and what should you look for?
1. Evaluate how you use Facebook. Keep in mind that EVERYTHING is not private and once you put your information on Facebook, it's no longer just "yours". Use this as a guide for what you should post.
2. Protect yourself from Facebook scams! Accept friends judiciously. Facebook is not a race to the person who has the most friends. Each friend brings a vulnerability. Due to new Facebook privacy settings, anything you enable your friends to post about you is public, regardless of whether you restricted that information to 'friends'.
3. Understand that you need to OPT for privacy. The default is now set to open sharing. The New York Times reports how to adjust your Facebook privacy setting to make sure that you have them set for privacy... for now...
4. Consider the value you get from Facebook and whether it's time to shut down the floodgates. Some of the most influential technorati are concerned about the 'amoral' use of private information and have begun to close their Facebook accounts.
5. Review your account privacy settings. If you haven't recently, you may want to review these ten common Facebook Privacy mistakes.
Facebook is still a huge opportunity to market your company and to connect with others... but be wise, use caution and arm yourself with knowledge.
If you use Facebook Business Pages to promote your business, as a Social Media Advocate and Social Media Marketing Consultant, I'd still advise you to continue to do so. This article is to caution regarding personal information. To the extent that the 'abuse' of information persists and the impact of the groundswell of closed accounts impacts the fashionability of Facebook to attract an audience, it may be in the near future that Facebook goes the way of MySpace...
In addition, you should listen to our latest podcast from "Addicted To Social Media" A2SM.com which is available either on iTunes, or by clicking the podcast to the right side of this blog.
WebMarCom is an Internet strategy and Web Marketing Communications Agency based in South Jersey and Philadelphia.