AskSileo Episode 3: How long should I spend setting up Facebook’s privacy and security settings?
If you haven’t spent at least 90 minutes with your child setting up their Facebook account, you can be pretty certain that they are not as protected as they should be. Here are the three most important security steps that will make your child much safer on social media:
If your child is old enough (if they are following the 13 and older rule, they are old enough) have them read through Facebook’s Data Use Policy, taking notes on what they learn. There is nothing like reading it for themselves to get them to care about what they are exposing to the world.
What are your questions? Let me know if the comments box below. Who knows, your question might appear next on AskSileo!
Undoubtedly, our kids face social pressure and pay a penalty if they decide to not be on Facebook. They are often accused of not being cool, feel left out of social events and updates that are no longer communicated in person and are looked at differently (out of touch) for choosing to not join the masses.
I want to hear about the social pressures your kids have faced! Share with us in the comments below.
Federal regulators have recently made some progress with regard to protecting the privacy of minors online by adding language specific to applications and social networks – to a certain extent. However, perhaps the amendments made to the Children's Online Privacy Act (COPPA) of 1998 should not be seen as a sweeping victory for parents everywhere, but as an indication of how much farther we still have to go.
For starters, the new rules, which don't go into effect until July of 2013, only apply to children under the age of 13. This is likely of little consolation to the parents of a 15-year-old boy or girl growing up in a world where their entire lives are being documented on the internet.
Furthermore, while the new regulations handed down by the Federal Trade Commission will require websites and applications geared toward children to obtain permission from parents before gathering data on their kids, it does not hold app stores accountable.
I’m starting a new video series on my AskSileo YouTube channel to address common questions that parents have about their kid’s safety on Facebook and online privacy in general.
AskSileo Episode 1: Children’s Safety on Facebook and Social Networking (drawing from first-hand experience)
I get this question all of the time: Is my kid safe on Facebook? The answer to that questions depends on three basic factors:
The amount of time you have invested in helping your child set up their Facebook account. If you haven’t spent at least 90 minutes in the process, they are in no way safe. It takes at least 1.5 hours to wisely populate their profile, customize privacy and security settings and read through the Facebook Data Use Policy (notice that Facebook no longer refers to it as a privacy policy, because the reality is that you have almost no privacy on Facebook).
Privacy. Or lack of it, to be specific. This past week, nude photos of Duchess Catherine (formerly Kate Middleton) were published in several French tabloids. The photos were taken from hundreds of meters away using sophisticated photographic equipment to capture a moment meant to be highly private.
Also this week, Mitt Romney was secretly videotaped at a small fundraising event dismissing 47% of the electorate as victims who take advantage of government and the taxation system.
Put aside for a minute what you think of Kate or Mitt, and ask yourself what you BELIEVE about our right to privacy.
Some people say that in the digital surveillance age, you are naive to think that anything is private. Everything outside of your own walls is fair game. But Romney and the Duchess thought that they were operating inside of their own walls. Others argue that we are entering a dangerous age of constant surveillance, and that the government and corporations are gaining too much access to our images, words and thoughts.
Every dollar counts, now more than ever, as the government searches for ways to wisely spend our money. It’s dismaying to learn that an audit report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has found that the impact of identity theft on tax administration is significantly greater than the amount the IRS detects and prevents. Even worse, the “IRS uses little of the data from identity theft cases…to detect and prevent future tax refund fraud” according to Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.
The IRS is detecting far fewer fake tax returns than are actually falsely filed. 938,700 were detected in 2011. On the other hand, TIGTA identified 1.5M additional undetected tax returns in 2011 with potentially fraudulent tax refunds totaling in excess of $5.2B.
The study predicted that the IRS stands to lose $21B in revenue over the next 5 years with new fraud controls, or $26B without the new controls.
It’s time for young adults to head off to college or move away from home for the first time. This is by far the highest risk group for identity theft for several reasons. When these kids leave the nest, it’s the first time they are getting true financial independence, which they might never have been trained to handle. They have access to credit cards, new bank accounts, and they’re managing it themselves. That may be a huge red flag that there’s going to be trouble. Secondly, they’re going into an environment where their stuff is not particularly protected. They’re in a dorm room or apartment, they’ve got roommates that may need extra cash; they know they can take advantage of them. So it’s a high risk environment. The third reason is because they do so much online. There’s so much social media interaction and that’s where tons of information is stolen. Take the steps listed below and talk to your newly-independent kids about implementing them. It will help them out not just this year but will also help them build their financial future going forward. Your identity is pretty much everything in terms of your net worth. You’ve got to take care of it now.
You may think your deceased loved ones are safe from having their identities stolen. Not true! The Death Master File contains data about millions of deceased people including the full name, Social Security number and other personal information. Though you’d think this would be carefully guarded, the Social Security Administration provides the file to the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service (NTIS). NTIS, in turn, distributes it to more than 450 entities including state and local governments, hospitals, universities, financial institutions, insurance companies and genealogy services. Even worse, anyone can access the information through the NTIS website. The cost? $10 for one person or an annual subscription with unlimited access to all of the files of deceased individuals costs $995.
Satisfaction with social-networking powerhouse Facebook has slumped, according to the latest survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index — hitting a new record-low score in the social media category that placed it in the five lowest-scoring companies out of more than 230 surveyed. There are several immediate factors that undermine user trust:
Inconsistency. Facebook’s user interface changes constantly (think Timeline) and this inconsistency leaves users feeling like they don’t know what to expect next from the social media site. Consistency builds trust, but Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem to have much vision for consistency.
Lack of Transparency. The average user has very little comfort with or knowledge about how Facebook is collecting, analyzing, using and selling their personal data. While Facebook has a range of privacy and security settings, most users still don’t comprehend the enormity of the information that Facebook collects on them. This lack of transparency leaves users with a bad taste in their mouth, like they are being cleverly deceived for the sake of profit.
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