Facebook Reveals the End of Your Privacy | Sileo

The many changes that Facebook has been making recently have users nervous. Nervous because they are lacking the control that they once had over their privacy on the social networking site. While Facebook has never been the mecca of privacy, the recent and swift changes they are making has created more of an issue for users. One by one they are voicing their concerns with the new features and why they feel Facebook is slowly revealing the end of your privacy.

Facebook and privacy issues go hand in hand.

Here are a few of the new features; although they are snazzy, they have many users concerned.

User IDs

With only your email address on hand, data miners can easily match it with the new user ID that has been issued to you. Basically, the ID provides your name and profile picture no matter how your privacy settings are set. This can also include your hometown, photos, friends, and more depending on how strict your settings are. This gives companies the ability to advertise to you. If you are a young female living in Austin, Texas, there are literally thousands of products that can be marketed to you just using that information alone.

Face Match or Tag Suggestions

When you are uploading photos to Facebook (as shown above), they will make “tag suggestions” of who should be tagged in your photo album. In other words, Facebook has the ability to know what you look like. This feature will be gradually rolled out over the next few weeks. In order to disable your “tagability”, you need to adjust your privacy settings. Just click ‘Customize Settings’ and de-select ‘Suggest photos of me to friends.’ Your name will no longer be suggested in photo tags, though friends can still tag you manually.

Switch Account

In a recent and unintentional Facebook leak, many users reported seeing a switch account tab. This feature gives you the ability to go back and forth between different accounts without having to log in and out. While this is easy for people who are administrators for certain pages, it is a privacy issue for users who want to have many pages in order to play out a scam.

Facebook Privacy Concerns

Facebook was built on the idea that users connect and share personal information with each other. It is up to the users to decide how much and to whom. The more you share, the stronger Facebook becomes and the easier it is to share that information with friends, strangers and advertisers.

While Facebook is consistently rolling out more features, users are having to update their privacy settings. With so much personal information sharing, the real cost to our privacy is still unknown.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

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Posted by Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy and tagged Facebook, identity theft expert, Identity Theft Prevention, John Sileo, Online Safety, Privacy, social networking.