Commonly known as “Facebook creeping,” millions of people log in to Facebook everyday, many multiple times a day to look at the profiles, status updates, and pictures of family members and friends. Facebook has changed our world. It has become a way of communication and also a way of meeting new people, but what most people do not know is that their online profiles are not as safe as they think they are.
According to cbsnews.com, Facebook is still relatively new and owners are still trying to figure out how to make money from the site that is free to users. Perhaps because of this, the site has undergone a number of changes lately and it is becoming more and more prevalent that a new security glitch is found every week. Recently there was a glitch found that allowed users to read their friends’ private chats. The problem was fixed, but many other problems like this are being found all the time.
In the same cbsnews.com article, the question was asked, “Do Facebook users really have privacy?” The answer was “No.” When users play games such as Farmville or take online quizzes and are asked to “Agree” to the application, their information is released to third party companies, such as advertisers and is then used to create ads and make money for the website.
Yes, users can choose to change the privacy settings of their profiles and to change what others can or cannot view, but there are limitations. For instance, what many people do not know is that other users still have access to things on their profile. For example, even if a profile is set to private that user and another user may have friends in common and if that user is tagged in a photo or in a post, the friends he or she has in common with another user can see those things even on a profile set to private.
Many users are also finding that if they perform a Google search of their name they can pull up comments that have been posted on their Facebook profile or comments they may have posted on other people’s walls. Although glitches like this are usually fixed soon after being discovered, who knows what other glitches will be found in the future.
Facebook has become a worldwide phenomenon, and that has changed how and with whom we communicate on a daily basis. It has also loosened our idea of what it is to be “private” and “safe” and Facebook users need to be aware of the risks when they make the decision to set up a profile and trust their private lives to Facebook.