Privacy on the Web ? The risk of social network.

By Sébastien Wiertz, January 4, 2009

Private data is always a controversial  subject inside an enterprise and especially if this enterprise is spread around the world where the policy on this subject may vary a lot from country to country. I am then always surprised to see how people innocently give their data on the web without reading clearly between the lines.

Do you have a facebook account ? how did you setup your privacy settings ? If you answer yes to my first question and ask yourself what the hell  you did  with the security settings then continue to read this article.

First of all, work is work and friendship is friendship so please create friend lists in facebook to separate your colleagues from your friends. Every time you accept a connection to somebody, add this person inside a group (called a friend list in facebook).

Then, go to settings and select "privacy settings"

You will see that facebook provides you with some ways to protect your privacy. A good start for you will be to set up the security on your profile and define then who can see your profile and personal information. In this area, you will be able to set the security and refine it by friends list. For example, you can say that "photos tagged of you"  can be seen only by friends ( facebook friends) and not by your work colleagues ( see snapshot bellow)

This is of course just an example but I suggest you take 10 minutes of your time to set up those settings and define appropriate friends list.

If you are using other social network than facebook, make sure that these kinds of settings that can be defined.

If you need more info about  the risk on social networks just you to read this file here

You feel better now ?

yes ? Do not forget that there is no privacy on the web and especially on Social Network. you have just filtered some info but all your private data are still controlled by one corporate entity.

There is however some prototypes on social networking which will ensure privacy like Jan Torben Heuer tends to prove  inside this article with his project Diki. While waiting for those solutions, think twice before publishing something in your social network.

3 Responses to “Privacy on the Web ? The risk of social network.”

1. David January 4, 2009

   I’m hoping that 2009 will see the emergence of an open distributed social network….but we have a long way to go before we start controlling more of our own data online.

   Reply
2. Latest & Greatest Links (weekly) | Tip of the Iceberg February 1, 2009

   […] Privacy on the Web ? The risk of social network. « Breakfast 2.0 […]

   Reply
3. Steph. February 10, 2009

   for your information (in French):

   http://www.le-tigre.net/Marc-L.html

   Steph.

   Reply