Facebook Privacy Breach

The article ‘Facebook Admits Privacy Breach’ published in ABC news, reported Facebook’s privacy policy being complaint where users information can be accessed by advertising companies without permissions.

Barnes (2006) stated that ‘social networking sites create a central repository of personal information’. To join Facebook or other social networking sites, users are required to create a personal profile by registering online (Cain, 2008). There are 500 million active Facebook users, interacting with 900 million objects on Facebook (Facebook statistic, 2010). All of these users’ profile are kept track online, causing a serious privacy issue. Ibid (n.d.) cited by Barnes (2006) mentioned that privacy is the right that people have to decide what information can be access by public and what should not.

A report by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook has been allowing access of users’ information to application on Facebook, advertising and Internet tracking companies, even if privacy settings are set. This will be affecting 10 million Facebook users, causing a violation of information. In another article by The Wall Street Journal had revealed how users’ information are leaked out to applications. Users ID which are tracked by companies’ apps somehow can be leaked to outside firms through referrers heading. The top three apps that face privacy breach issue include Zynga Game Network Inc.’s FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker, and FrontierVille, the journal reported.

10 of the top Facebook apps encountered in transmitting users’ IDs.
(Source: The Wall Street Journal, 2010)

Facebook users should take note of this issue. According to an article in Social Times, Facebook now enables users to identify which application can access to users’ IDs. You can look for the ‘Privacy’ and ‘Application, Games and Websites’ tabs under the ‘Account’ options to identify your ID status. Or you can select the ‘Turn off all platform applications’ option from the ‘Application, Games and Websites’ function.

Privacy breach a serious issue which is affecting all of us. Citizens and consumers should have the rights to know who can access to their IDs and how information is used (Barnes, 2006).

References

1. ABC News 2010, Facebook admits privacy breach, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042594.htm

2. Barnes, SB 2006, ‘A privacy paradox: social networking in the United States,’ First Monday, vol. 11, no. 9, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/1394/1312%23note4

3. Cain, J 2008, ‘Online social networking issues within academia and pharmacy education,’ American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, vol. 72, no. 1, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from https://www-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/pmc/articles/PMC2254235/

4. Facebook 2010, Statistic, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

5. Kindelan, K 2010, Facebook privacy breach: what happened and what you can do, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/10/facebook-privacy-breach-what-happened-and-what-you-can-do/

6. Steel, E & Fowler, GA 2010, Facebook in privacy breach, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html

7. The Wall Street Journal 2010, Referers: how facebook apps leak users’ IDs, viewed on 14/11/2010, retrieved from http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/10/18/referers-how-facebook-apps-leak-user-ids/