The concept of Internet vigilance seems particularly apt when applied to the popular social networking site Facebook.
Millions of users log on to the website every day to add their personal information that their friends may enjoy but the practice may inadvertently expose the user to sharing private information with the world.
I am not condemning those who use Facebook. In fact, I have my own page. What I do suggest, however, is that we, as Facebook users, fight to protect our privacy.
In recent weeks there have been instances of what Facebook calls “bugs” that have caused private information to become available to those who have no right to have it.
One such bug allowed users to employ the feature that allows you to view your profile from a friend’s perspective. During this special viewing, private chat messages were available for viewing. This error was recognized and has since been removed.
Another bug caused applications to be installed without users’ permissions if they visited popular sites while logged into their Facebook account, such as Stumbleupon, Gawker or the Washington Post.
I know that these “bugs” have been fixed and, yes, they were bugs. The fact remains that Facebook is slowly transitioning from a fun, playful social networking site into a massive social network that contains substantial amounts of personal information on millions of users.
I think I speak for many users, not just of Facebook but of the internet in general, when I say that we must make sure our privacy is not being compromised.
In this time of uncertainty, when people are unsure if the information they are displaying is viewable to merely their friends or the entire World Wide Web, people must become masters of this domain.
The Internet is an amazing tool, but unless that tool is properly used, people’s privacy could be compromised.
If you use Facebook, keep up to date on the changes Facebook makes in its privacy policy.
Double and triple check your privacy settings for your profile. The Internet and social networking sites are a new frontier that the world has yet to deal with in terms of privacy, so the task is thrust upon ourselves to police our profiles and keep our information private.
