It's becoming almost impossible to hide from the network...
It turns out that Facebook’s mapping of the world’s social connections goes beyond even its 500 million+ members.
In an interesting little experiment, the BBC’s Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones demonstrates that it knows a fair bit about you even if you haven’t signed up yet. Continue reading
Is there enough information about you on the web for someone to steal your identity? Very possibly.
Is there enough information available by phoning around or going through your bins. Definitely.
A blog post on the social networks, security, privacy and identity theft by New Statesman journalist Jason Stamper is well worth a read. Jason carried out his own experiment, using publicly available Foursquare and social network information to build up a profile of a stranger. Continue reading
Image: Preferable to premium rate phonelines? Initiatives like Teach Your Granny to Text spread understanding of new technology...
As social networks become a part of most people’s lives, all sorts of services are springing up to help them, from mobile phone apps to reputation search engines. There is though a darker side, of spammers, scam artists and money-making schemes.
I came across an advert recently for Social Network UK Helpline, which charges people £1.50 a minute for advice about using social networks. Continue reading
Younger people in America could teach their parents a thing or two about responsible behaviour online, according to US research organisation Pew Research Center. Meanwhile older people are more likely to be careless about how they are managing their personal online reputation. Continue reading
The introduction to Me and My Web Shadow said that the book would probably be out of date before it was even published, and I wasn’t joking. It also said that Facebook was probably the most important place to start looking at what information about you is private and what is available for anyone to see.
In the past few weeks there has been a lot of conversation online about the rights and wrongs of Facebook’s privacy settings. The New York Times published this visual representation of the complex nature of them. It has made many people feel vulnerable and anxious about controlling the personal information that Facebook stores and shares. To try and tackle this, Facebook has rolled out some new tools for managing those settings – claiming that this is Making Control Simple.
This article talks you through these new top level privacy controls and should act as an update to the Facebook chapter in Me and My Web Shadow. Hope it’s useful. Continue reading