Another Facebook privacy fiasco was front and center this week. Security experts, media pundits and privacy advocates all weighed in on the issue with their two cents and then some. This latest privacy breach involved popular Facebook applications sending personal user information, specifically unique “Facebook ID” numbers, to third party companies and advertisers. These numbers can be traced back to individual user accounts. The report found the issue affected millions of users, and personal privacy settings had no effect on protecting users from the breach.
Obviously, this has created a public relations nightmare for Facebook. Just when the storms settled down from Facebook’s latest privacy infractions, not to mention the bad press and hype received by the release of “The Social Network,” Facebook again finds itself in damage control mode. Facebook contends they take user privacy very seriously, but their actions often do not line up with their rhetoric. The result is often an eroding confidence of its user base. The original story broken by the Wall Street Journal can be found here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html
Other stories we followed this week relating to privacy and safety issues of social networking sites are listed below:
MediaPost Publications Zynga Sued Over Sharing Facebook Users’ Data, Lawyer Pledges More Suits To Co
Scams of the Week
A new clickjacking scam surfaced this week:
This American GUY must be Stoned to Death for doing this to a GIRL (NO SURVEYS)! Facebook Scam
Other notable Facebook stories we followed:
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