Do you think about your privacy before you “log in”?
When you log in to your
Facebook account, the first thing that meets you are adds, pages Facebook
suggest you to visit and your best friends status updates at the top of your
timeline where you easily can see it. Have you ever thought about how Facebook
knows what kind of shoes you like, or who is your best friend?
19-year old Mark Zuckerberg launched
Facebook, one of the biggest social media platforms and social communities of
all time on February 4, 2004. Today, six years later, 400 million people visit
the site every month (1).
Picture 1
Now we can`t even imagine how life was
before Facebook. We post pictures, albums: one album for each year, one for
family pictures and one for last vacation. We use it to plan events: birthdays,
meetings, concerts and parties. We use it to chat with friends and family,
personal conversation, share things that we only share with the persons we
trust the most. Nevertheless, who own the rights to these pictures that we
post? Where goes all the pictures and our private conversations? Where is all
the personal information about the users saved? Who owns this information, and
whom do they share it with?
If you take a quick look at Facebooks page
for Statement of Rights and Responsibilities you meet this “You give us
permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in
connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you
like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a
business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture
with your content or information, without any compensation to you” (2). Are you
surprised? You shouldn`t be, since these are terms of policy that you have
confirmed reading, and you can find them easily with a click on google.
However, maybe you just don`t care?
We continued our little
Facebook tour in to their “Data Policy” site. There you can find information
such as; what kinds of information they collect, how they use it and how they
share it. There you can read that they collect information of things you do and
information you provide, your networks and connections and information about
payments to mention some of it. Further, you can read that they share this
information with Apps, websites and third-party integrations, sharing within
Facebook companies and use the information for such as Advertising, Measurement
and Analytics Services (Non- Personality Identifiable Information Only). Even
though they emphasizes that they won`t share your personal information, they
still collect it, saves it and owns it (3).
Picture 2
So, what happens if
someone hack in to Facebook? Are your personal information safe? A trend lately
according to the Norwegian newspaper “Today’s Business life” is that people easily
hack in to people’s accounts, to collect personal information. Then they use
the personal information to steal your identity and your money. They hack you
easily by posting funny films or articles, and make you click in to their site.
The site looks like Facebook, but it is fake, and by clicking in to it, you give
them access to your passwords and log in information. Now the hackers have
access to your whole Facebook account: your personal information such as address,
phone number, payment information, pictures and your personal messages (4). Do
you still don`t care about your safety using social media?
Another story, the most of you have heard
of, is the hacking of the dating site: “The Ashley Madison”. The Ashley Madison
arranged affairs between married individuals and they offered their users
safety and secrecy, but what happened? The site was hacked, and the hackers have posted personal information like e-mail addresses
and account details from 32 million of the site’s members (5).
Last week Snapchat announced that they now
will start to save all the pictures you send, and that they now own your
photos, even after they disappear (6). Will this change your use of snapchat?
Do you now realise that Snapchat can sell your pictures in public, without even
ask you?
We hope this blog gave you all a little
wakeup call when it comes to privacy. The moment you log in, you don`t own your
personal information anymore. The question is, will you change your internet
habits now that you are aware of it?
By
Camilla Soennichsen and Benedicte Hurlen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(5) http://fortune.com/2015/08/26/ashley-madison-hack/
(8) Picture 2: http://www.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimage2.ajcontent.com%2FArchive%2FASE%2FProductArchive%2F80061%2F80061_1_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ajprodukter.no%2Fgarderobeskap-innredning%2Ftilbehor%2Fhasp-for-hengelas%2F458706-1571960.wf&h=768&w=768&tbnid=fUGa5E2psh4ZEM%3A&docid=tk0vE5IYtwO9RM&ei=mb9JVpKjHoGQaZjEvuAE&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=302&page=4&start=48&ndsp=18&ved=0CLkBEK0DMDFqFQoTCNLTz_7slMkCFQFIGgodGKIPTA
No comments:
Post a Comment