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Can the Law keep up with technology?
CNN has a new article that addresses this growing issue. Cases are continuing to pop up based on an offense or crime committed in cyberspace. Five years ago suing someone for allegedly slamming you on Twitter would have been unimaginable. But just recently an apartment tenant is being sued for $50,000 in damages after she took to her twitter to complain about her living situation to another user.
Many legal experts are watching these cases carefully because they will lay the groundwork for these unaddressed areas of the law. They said that in this growing age of technology it takes almost 5 years to play catch up with current American law. Lawmakers are unable to predict the next big wave in technology and the legal issues that will follow. With such a severe gray area when it comes to Social Media and your Privacy, society must be able to balance accountability with free speech.
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook privacy, Identity Theft Law, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, Online/Social Media Privacy, Technology, twitter privacy
Google introduced the Google Dashboard on November 5th to help calm privacy critics. This provides a summary of the application data associated with your Google account.
Users are able to see what sites they visit, how many Docs they have created and share, how many iGoogle gadgets they are using, Google Reader info, Profile info, Tasks and YouTube history. This is great way for users to be able to see and control their data. It makes people more aware of what they put out there and allows them to set certain privacy settings. The Google Dashboard is currently available in 17 languages and you can Click Here to Read More.
John Sileo provides identity theft training to human resource departments and organizations around the country. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Google, Google Dashboard, Identity Protection, identity theft expert, Internet, John Sileo, Privacy
In a New York Times Magazine article entitled Facebook Exodus, Virginia Heffernan questions whether Facebook users are losing interest like kids lose interest in a new toy. Heffernan cites the reasons her friends are defecting:
- It makes us too nosy, too focused on other people’s dirt (our “friends”)
- Some fear stalkers
- Some feel their privacy is being compromised
- Some disappear without a word
In addition to this, I would add:
- It takes a lot of time away from real-life interactions
- We remember why we weren’t in touch with those old friends from high school – they wouldn’t even talk to me then!
- People are tired of having more of a relationship with a screen than an actual human
- It encourages others to talk about you in an open forum, which is fine if everyone loves you
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook defection, facebook exodus, facebook privacy
Facebook privacy has taken a step forward. Last week I wrote about Facebook Safety Tips, as privacy is becoming a key factor in the social networking world. Yesterday, Facebook announced that they would tighten up privacy in response to a set of recommendations made by the Canadian government (Facebook Privacy Announcement).
Here is the gist of the Facebook Privacy Changes that will be implemented in the next 12 months:
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook privacy, Facebook Safety
Facebook safety has a direct correlation to your business’s bottom line.
Facebook, and social networking sites in general, are in an awkward stage between infancy and adulthood – mature in some ways, helpless in others. On the darker side of sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, scammers and identity thieves are drooling at the sight of this unchecked data playground. In contrast, most social networkers are addicted to all of the friendships they are creating and renewing.
There is no denying that Facebook and other social networking sites have a very luring appeal. You can sit in the comfort of your own home and suddenly have a thriving social life. You can look up old friends, make new ones, build business relationships and create a profile for yourself that highlights only your talents and adventures while conveniently leaving out all your flaws and troubles. It is easy to see why Facebook has acquired over 200 million users worldwide in just over five years. Which is why Facebook safety is still so immature: Facebook’s interface and functionality has grown faster than security can keep up.
Unfortunately, most people dive head first into this world of social connectedness without thinking through the ramifications of all the personal information that is now traveling at warp speed through cyberspace. It’s like being served a delicious new drink at a party, one that you can’t possibly resist because it is so fun and tempting and EVERYONE is having one. The downside? Nobody is thinking about the information hangover that comes from over-indulgence: what you put on the Internet STAYS on the internet, forever. And sometimes it shows up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, in the hands of a prospective employer or your boss’s inbox. All of the personal information that is being posted on profiles — names, birth dates, kids’ names, photographs, pet’s names (and other password reminders), addresses, opinions on your company, your friends and your enemies — all of it serves as a one-stop shop for identity thieves. It’s all right there in one neat little package and all a scammer has to do to access it is become your “friend”.
Follow these Five Facebook Safety Tips and save yourself the trouble…
5 Facebook Safety Tips
Facebook Safety Tip #1: If they’re not your friend, don’t pretend. Don’t accept friend requests unless you absolutely know who they are and that you would associate with them in person, just like real friends.
Facebook Safety Tip #2: Post only what you want made public. Be cautious about the personal information that you post on any social media site, as there is every chance in the world that it will spread beyond your original submission. It may be fun to think that an old flame can contact you, but now scammers and thieves are clambering to access that personal information as well.
Facebook Safety Tip #3: Manage your privacy settings. Sixty percent of social network users are unaware of their default privacy settings. Facebook actually does a good job of explaining how to lock your privacy down (even if they don’t set up your account with good privacy settings by default). To make it easy for you, follow these steps:
- Spend 10 minutes reading the Facebook Privacy Policy. This is an education in social networking privacy issues. Once you have read through a privacy policy, you will never view your private information in the same way. At the point the privacy policy is putting you to sleep, move on to Step 2.
- Visit the Facebook Privacy Help Page. This explains how to minimize all of the possible personal information leakage that you just read about in the privacy policy. Once you understand this on one social networking site, it becomes second nature on most of the others.
- Now it is time to customize your Facebook Privacy Settings so that only information you want shared, IS shared. This simple step will reduce your risk of identity theft dramatically.
Facebook Safety Tip #4: Keep Google Out. Unless you want all of your personal information indexed by Google and other search engines, restrict your profile so that it is not visible to these data-mining experts.
Facebook Safety Tip #5: Don’t unthinkingly respond to Friends in Distress. If you receive a post requesting money to help a friend out, do the smart thing and call them in person. Friend in Distress schemes are when a thief takes over someone else’s account and then makes a plea for financial help to all of your friends (who think that the post is coming from you). As with all matters of identity, verify the source.
Following these 5 Facebook Safety tips are a great way to prevent an information-sharing hangover.
The best way to protect you and your children from Online threats is to educate yourself about Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other online social networking utilities. We recently published the Facebook Safety Survival Guide (with Parents’ Guide to Online Safety) with that exact goal in mind. Social networking is immensely powerful and is here for the long run, but we must learn to harness and control it.
John Sileo is the award-winning author of Stolen Lives, Privacy Means Profit and the Facebook Safety Survival Guide. His professional speaking clients include the Department of Defense, the FTC, FDIC, Pfizer, Prudential and hundreds of other organizations that care about their information privacy. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Safety, linkedin, Must Read, Online/Social Media Privacy, Privacy, social networking, twitter
According to the Christian Science Monitor and other reputable media sources, the marines have banned social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter. Currently, the Pentagon is reviewing its entire policy on the use of social networking sites. Can you imagine the enemy discovering troop locations or military tactical data via social networking? Ironic timing, as just a few weeks ago I was delivering an identity theft speech at the Pentagon and recorded a short video about this problem.
Facebook Privacy & The Pentagon
The Christian Science Monitor ran the following quote from a memo distributed Tuesday to all Marines:
The very nature of [social networking sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts [operational and communication security] personnel and the [Marine Corps network] at an elevated risk of compromise.
Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook banned, Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo, marines, social networking, social networking sites banned
Is there such a thing as
Facebook Privacy? Or Twitter, LinkedIn or any other social networking/media sites? I’m not convinced that any of us really know the answer yet. I think we so-called privacy experts talk a big game, but the subject is still maturing, and definitely up for debate.
Who owns the data on Facebook? Who has access to the information stored in the Cloud? Are your Tweets admissible in court?
Join us in the debate as Mike Spinney of the Ponemon Institute and I host a seminar on Social Media’s Impact on Corporate Privacy next Thursday, August 13 from 9:00-9:45 a.m. Mountain Time. The Webinar is geared to anyone whose personal or business information is at risk of social media leakage. We’d love to hear your opinions, questions and comments.
The format will be casual and we will be discussing the following topics (time permitting):
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook privacy, Online/Social Media Privacy
Like a wounded, cornered Doberman, I was irrational and reactive.
My blog was down, non-existent. When you earn your keep by communicating ideas, like I do as a professional speaker, any threat to the distribution of those ideas raises the peach fuzz on the back of your neck. After days of being unable to reach my webmaster by office phone, cell phone, SMS text, instant message or email, I dialed up the pressure on him to respond. I turned to the powerful and influential world of social media…
I tweeted him. Publicly.
@johnswebguy Where in the name of Google Earth are you? Why won’t you contact me? [poetic license applied to save face]
Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo.
Tags: facebook privacy, Facebook Safety, Must Read, Tweet Breach, twitter breach, twitter privacy, twitter speaker
