Quit Facebook Day

Facebook has been hit hard lately with criticisms of its privacy controls. As customers need to vote with their feet, there is a movement to quit Facebook. Quit Facebook Day is the brainchild of two Canadians, Joseph Dee and Matthew Milan and, at the time of this writing, over 27,000 users have pledged to leaving the social networking Web site. Although this number is quite small, representing less than 0.006% of the 500 million users, it sends a message to the social media giant that people are taking their privacy seriously, as they should.


Here are some Facebook policies:

• "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile." They are going to augment your profile with items that you have not sanctioned to be part of your profile.
• "We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship." They are going to give your information to organizations that they deem responsible (guess that's the way they make money.

Are you okay with the above? I'm not and that it why I left Facebook several months ago. I came across a good article about protecting privacy on Facebook. I would urge all Facebookers to read it - Symantec Tips For Guarding Facebook Privacy.

Facebook has taken notice of the issue of privacy and is trying to address concerns about consolidating privacy controls onto one page, the ability to block others from seeing your profile, and the ability to opt-out of using Facebook platform which delivers games, quizzes and other activities to Facebook users. 

Obviously, "Quit Facebook Day"is not going to bring down Facebook as most users are happy with its privacy settings. Facebook does provide a fun way to stay connected with family and friends but awareness of this issue is important to all Facebook users. 

Trolling for your Information

Two stories caught my eye this week that I found very alarming. The first was about Google intercepting WiFi signals with its Street View cars. Apparently Google was doing more than just taking pictures of your house for its Street View version of Google Maps (see Google Wi-Fi Breach Spurs Calls For Investigation). They gathered network names and computer information from unsecured wireless networks as they drove by. Shame on Google!! For this and many other reasons, you should encrypt your wireless signal. If you don't know how, contact the people who sold you your router or contact your Internet Service Provider.

Cloud Computing and Privacy

Cloud computing is using applications that are located on remote computers called servers. Some common examples of cloud computing would be Google Apps, DropBox and Microsoft's Workspace. Cloud computing is very convenient as is allow the user to access program and data as long as they have an Internet connection. One issue with cloud computing is privacy. As your data is stored on remote computers, you have no control over who accesses the data. Hopefully, cloud computing suppliers have strict privacy laws and very strong security. Even so, they can still read your data. For example, if you are a Gmail user, you should notice that the nature of the ads appearing on the right hand side of your Gmail screen  is based upon your email content.

My recommendation is not to put anything of a sensitive  nature on the cloud. Data security breaches happen regularly (for example, see Alberta health records hacked and Email security breach exposes customers credit care details) - more than is reported in the press. Companies do not like to admit that they have been breached because it reduces their clients' confidence as well as advertising the fact that their information center has been compromised.  I have a feeling that one day we will hear about the security breach at at cloud computing supplier.

Before using cloud computing, understand the terms and conditions and only use it for data that would not harm you or your company. Think about it this way - only use cloud computing for data that you would not mind seeing on the front page of a national newspaper.