New Version Released: Facebook Privacy & Security Guide

Posted under Facebook, Privacy, Social Media, Social Networking on September 15th, 2009 by

Facebook has made some changes to the privacy settings for Facebook profiles since the last time I updated the Facebook Privacy & Security Guide which was back on it’s original release (October 2008).  As with all things on the web…we want to keep this guide as current as possible so users of Facebook know how to configure each of the privacy settings in their profile.  Updates in this version (v1.1) include:

  • News Feed and Wall settings have been updated.  Facebook removed settings such as “time and date” and streamlined other settings
  • I have provided more information on how Facebook applications work and how you should configure your application privacy settings based on if your friends install an application
  • Updated information about Facebook Ads, Facebook Connect settings and Beacon websites

Click here to download the new version of the Facebook Privacy & Security Guide (v1.1)
(if you are downloading this to your browser, be sure to clear your browser cache prior to downloading as you may have the old version in your cache.  Better to do a “Save Link As…”)

As usual, please send any feedback about the guide to feedback[aT]socialmediasecurity.com or post a comment below.  As a supplement to this guide, stay tuned for a video walk through which we plan to post on YouTube and also make it available for free download.  If you have any other suggestions for user awareness guides, articles, video’s etc…consider joining our mailing list.

Vote for Inherent Dangers of Real-Time Social Networking panel at #SXSW

Posted under Social Media, Social Networking on August 18th, 2009 by

SXSW2010_logo_squareWe were happy to see that one of the panels up for selection at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival next year (March 12-16, 2010) is a panel about the security of social networks called “Inherent Dangers of Real-Time Social Networking”.  The way panel selections work st SXSW is that they are up for open voting which ends on September 4th.  Basically the voting works like this (from the SXSW site):

“SXSW is a community-driven event. So, knowing what kinds of topics you want to hear at the event next March is extremely important to us. Your voting accounts for about 30% of the decision-making process for any given programming slot.

Also important is the input of the SXSW Advisory Board, which is a group of industry professionals from across the US and around the world. The final part of the panel decision-making equation is the input of the SXSW staff.”

So yes, you have a big part in the selection process!  This panel includes the following participants:

Jennifer Leggio (@mediaphyter), ZDNet
John Adams (@netik), Twitter operations and security incident response team
Damon Cortesi (@dacort), security consultant at Sevicron, founder of TweetStats, Twitter app developer
Mike Murray (@mmurray), CISO of Foreground Security

Awesome, awesome group for this panel.  Here is the description of the panel (from the SXSW PanelPicker site):

“There’s plenty of chatter about social media and security issues, from social engineering to the naïveté of users. This panel of experts will explore how cyber criminals are taking advantage of socnets flaws and lack of user awareness, and what both individuals and companies can do to help protect themselves.”

Since this is one of the biggest media conferences of the year, we highly encourage you to vote for this panel.  This will be one not to miss if selected!  What are you waiting for?  Go vote now!

Sex Offenders in IL Banned from Social Networking Sites

Posted under Privacy, Social Media, Social Networking on August 13th, 2009 by

There was an interesting post on Mashable today about a new law that was just passed in Illinois by the governor Pat Quinn.  Basically, it bans sex offenders from using social networking sites.  The problem is that social networking is so loosely defined that this could mean any news site or blog.  Think about Facebook Connect or anything that shows a profile picture with media links and/or text.  In addition, how would this stop a sex offender from using an alias and/or fake name on these sites (if you can even define what these sites are)?

There is some interesting conversation brewing around this one especially around the fact that just by peeing in public you are considered a sex offender in 13 states!

Read the entire article on Mashable here.

View proposed changes to the Facebook SRR/ToS

Posted under Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking on August 12th, 2009 by

fb_governanceYou can view and comment on changes to the Facebook SRR (Statement of Rights and Responsibilities or better known as “Terms of Service”) located on the Facebook Governance Page.  You can download and review the redlined proposed changes here.  The deadline for comment is 12pm PST August 18th.  It is important for Facebook users to review these new terms as there are significant changes to the SRR and the wording that is used.  Most of the SRR will affect your privacy as a Facebook user.

For example, make sure you note the following:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non‐exclusive, transferable, sub‐licensable, royalty free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”).  This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).

3. When you add an application and use Platform, your content and information is shared with the application.  We require applications to respect your privacy settings, but your agreement with that application will control how the application can use the content and information you share.

4. When you publish content or information using the “everyone” setting, it means that everyone, including people off of Facebook, will have access to that information and we may not have control over what they do with it.

You should already know these things though, right?  🙂 Remember: Anything you post to Facebook private or not…consider it public information.  You can leave your comments on the Facebook Governance Page or feel free to comment here.  We would love to hear your opinion of these upcoming changes.

Security and Privacy in Social Networks Bibliography

Posted under Site News, Social Media, Social Networking on August 5th, 2009 by

We just added a fantastic link to 70+ academic papers about security and privacy issues in social networks. It is maintained by Joseph Bonneau from the University of Cambridge.  You will see a page titled “Research” at the top of the page where you can get links to this and other academic papers and research papers.

Thanks to Joe for the submission!

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