I just came across an article about the dangers of social networking sites togetheer with some tips of what to do and what to avoid. For many people most of this might be obvious, but, as one expert put it, "there’s a whole lot of clicking without a lot of thinking ".
One thing that I did not fully realize before was what do these 3rd party applications you can use on FB for example really do. The truth is that the SN sites gather and store a lot of information which can be used (or misused) in different ways, ranging from invasive targeted ads to identity theft.
You may think that Facebook profiles and sometimes MySpace pages, if they’re set as private, are available only to friends or specific groups. However, that’s not true if you use applications. On Facebook, applications can only be downloaded if a user checks a box allowing its developers to “know who I am and access my information,” which means everything on a profile, except contact info. Given little thought, agreeing to the terms has become a matter of routine for the nearly 70 million Facebook users worldwide. Now, remember when you used the social graph application, how many of you have clicked yes without really thinking about it ?
So what do these third-parties do with the information? Sometimes, they use it to connect users with similar interests. Sometimes, they use it to target ads, based on demographics such as gender and age (something Facebook and MySpace also do).
But, in the end, a researcher says there’s really nothing stopping them from matching profile information with public records. It also could be sold or stolen. And all of that could lead to serious matters such as identity theft.
Peter, M12
1 comment:
Thanks for this, and for your comments.
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