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Facebook is a great platform, not only can you find long lost friends (or enemies), you can share all your personal information with them. However, with such a powerful tool comes a few concerns about identity theft or even personal safety – much of the information we use for banking security such as home address and data of birth is readily available on our profiles. The good news is that the privacy settings within Facebook allow you to restrict the levels of information that are available to your network, friends or even specific individuals. The alternative default makes almost everything available to everybody via member search – friend or not - so it’s worth reviewing in my opinion.

There will of course be people thinking “If you’re that worried about what your friends can see then you shouldn’t have added them” but for me that’s more about the definition of ‘Friend’. ‘Friend’ should really read ‘Personal acquaintance’ – we’ve all added people we’ve met a few times and wouldn’t actually count as ‘Friends’ – some I’ve spoken to have even added school bullies because they didn’t want to offend them (madness). It probably won’t be long before some nutter with a grudge goes on a Facebook killing spree (which would make a good book!) or we see Jeremy Kyle show topics of ‘Facebook ruined my life’. I’ve adjusted my privacy settings accordingly to ensure that I only divulge the specific details I’m happy with. If you’re on my friends list and can see almost everything then congratulations - I don’t think you’re a serial killer.

However – then come the Facebook applications for ‘Vampire biting’ or ‘Scrabble’, largely developed by third parties since the Facebook platform was ‘opened’. These third parties can access most of the information on your profile apart from your contact details. This is good for them for targeting advertising or profiling their demographics but makes me nervous, especially when Facebook’s own terms state that: Facebook cannot guarantee that each Developer will comply with its contractual requirements, and Facebook does not assume any liability or responsibility for any of Developer’s actions, Developer Applications or websites, or for enforcing any Developer Agreement against any Developer. So what can the developers (who remember are not employed by Facebook) actually see?:

• Your name
• Your profile picture
• Your gender
• Your birthday
• Your hometown location (city/state/country)
• Your current location (city/state/country)
• Your political view
• Your activities
• Your interests
• Your musical preferences
• Television shows in which you are interested
• Movies in which you are interested
• Books in which you are interested
• Your favourite quotes
• The text of your “About Me” section
• Your relationship status
• Your dating interests
• Your relationship interests
• Your summer plans
• Your Facebook user network affiliations
• Your education history
• Your work history
• Your course information
• Copies of photos in your Facebook Site photo albums
• Metadata associated with your Facebook Site photo albums (e.g., time of upload, album name, comments on your photos, etc.)
• The total number of messages sent and/or received by you
• The total number of unread messages in your Facebook in-box
• The total number of “pokes” you have sent and/or received
• The total number of wall posts on your Wall™
• A list of user IDs mapped to your Facebook friends
• Your social timeline
• Events associated with your Facebook profile

Seems like rather a lot doesn’t it for people Facebook say they will not be responsible for? On that basis I rarely accept an application invite unless it has been built by a company I already trust – such as Trip Advisor. So if you’re wondering why I haven’t played Scrabble with you or completed a Likeness survey now you know - I just don’t know where my data is going. I think Facebook is a great tool which will take us all to a wonderful new level of communication and save lots of time, just be aware at all times of who you are divulging your personal information to and if you’re in any doubt, don’t even post it to your profile.

Useful Related Articles:
New Facebook privacy concerns
Facebook’s “Privacy Trainwreck”: Exposure, Invasion, and Drama

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