Nearly 200 million people in the US share their address and phone number in phone books — this is roughly equivalent to the number of people who publicly share personal info on Facebook.
In both cases, sharing private info is a personal choice.
Security concerns over Facebook were highlighed again when security consultant Ron Bowes collected the names and profile URLs for 171 million Facebook accounts from publicly available information and shared it with the world.
The file shared by Bowes contained information for 20 percent of Facebook users. Nothing is dubious or illegal about Bowe’s actions, though, because it simply shares data that is available to the public.
I get a bit frustrated when people describe Bowe’s act as a ‘leak.’ It’s not a leak. Facebook security was never compromised. No one’s privacy was exploited. The info from these 171 million profiles that is publicly available — even now — to everyone. It’s information that people are choosing to share.
Bowes was just the first opportunist to highlight how important it is for individuals to adjust their Facebook privacy settings.
Credits: Cartoon courtesy of Daryl Cagle.
What’s the Face of YOUR Facebook profile?
We created the following video at American Family Insurance to inform employees about Facebook privacy settings. Now, its available for everyone. Enjoy!
About Troy Janisch
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