A flaw in Facebook’s new privacy controls
This week, Facebook launched new privacy control upgrades and, for the most part, the news reports have been positive.
But are these new upgrades a real improvement over past control settings? Chris Soghoian at Surveill@nce St@te points out a critical flaw in the new control settings, noting that Facebook claims its new privacy settings allow certain users to select which type of strangers can view their profiles. For instance, an undergrad student at an American university can specify that her profile can only be seen by other undergrads and grad students, but not faculty or administration. While it sounds like a great idea, Soghoian points out that Facebook has no way of verifying one’s university status:
“The company is only able to verify that the user has a valid .edu e-mail address, which could mean that the person is a student, staff member, professor, or alumni. As a result, Facebook asks users to self-report this information. Given an example situation where a student doesn’t wish for the Facebook-using professors at their university to be able to view their profile, it would be trivially easy for a professor to log in, and change his or her own status to that of an undergrad.”
While it’s nice to see Facebook responding to increasing concerns over privacy, the bigger question is whether anyone will actually use them. According to Facebook’s own figures, only 25% of its users have bothered to use existing privacy settings.
3 Responses
12:32 pm
Facebook has actually reduced — not increased — privacy protections in one aspect: poking and messaging. Worse, it did not inform anyone about this.
See this blog for details
http://gravesnet.com/archives/2008/03/24/facebook-poke-and-message-now-gives-you-less-privacy/
2:20 pm
Privacy is a vital issue, and one that requires that great care be taken by Facebook itself, as well as those who use the site. Sharing of privacy data – both by Facebook and other applications that are designed for the Facebook platform – is, and should be, a central privacy concern.
I am a faculty member at a leading Canadian university, and among other things, I research digital media.
For the most part, issues surrounding privacy for many of us are relatively minor. I may receive a news feed about someone I know casually that is more personal than I need to know, and wonder about instances of vice versa, etc. But in general, these are issues that are simply ignored. Using existing privacy settings, I can set my privacy settings to friends only, and simply not add anyone I don’t know as a friend. Such tools are in the hands of users, as most all Facebook users are aware.
The issue being raised is indeed a major flaw in filtering – students apart from professors apart from administrators, etc. If it is to work, there must be a means of validating users. If not, then frankly it may be better to not have any such filtering at all.
In my research – which must past ethics clearance and be done with open consent – I have found that many students actually have a solid sense of privacy.
But it seems that students in their late teens and twenties may have a sense of privacy that runs somewhat counter to that of older generations. Many students seem to be not bothered by information gathered for marketing purposes, e.g. stats that determine whether you see a dieting ad (how do they know I am overweight, unless by age?) or a dating website ad, etc. These concerns were huge among the Canadian public in the late 1990s, when the use of “cookies” to track web statistics created a privacy panic throughout North America. Perhaps the whole notion of privacy is one that is culturally, and in this instance, generationally, determined.
We have all heard stories of students suffering from posting drunken photos to their Facebook profiles. Moreover, there are instances in which I’m aware where gay students have suffered serious consequences in somewhat similar circumstances. In this instance, tagging of photos can be as risky to privacy as the accessing of profiles themselves. Being tagged in a photo that reveals intimacy, or in a photo at a gay pride event, or in a photo from drag night, can all have a very serious outcome. Often these consequences are real, sometimes threatening, and at times very costly. I hasten to add that these are not issues that would be solved (or affected one way or another) by filtering between students, professors, and administrators, or between university networks and public, regional ones. Tagging lies in the hands of your friends, and even though you may have the ability to “untag” yourself, in some instances it may come too late. I know of at least one instance where this has led to the inadvertant outing of a young man to his family. In general, many gay users of Facebook are very careful when adding friends, family members, and others to their profile as “friends.” It actually would be good if more people gave equal care and consideration of who they add.
Yet, I would like to raise another issue that I consider equal to that of privacy concerns, and which I have not seen mention in any of the privacy literature in Canada or the Office of Privacy Commissioner. Facebook can serve a useful function in a university setting, particularly when it comes to teaching and maintaining communication. In a situation where classes are becoming increasingly large, any communication tool that facilitates dialogue between professors and students, and that removes or diminishes the increasingly large barrier between students and faculty is a welcomed thing.
What may be warranted is a policy guide that encourages a certain usage of Facebook, and discourages other usages, rather than a move away from social networking as a form of communication per se.
2:25 pm
Thanks for your comments, Professor Graffam.
I don’t think you’ll find us arguing that social networks must be avoided or restricted – that would be an untenable and unrealistic position.
Our latest investigation report, though, argues that social networks should provide users and non-users with the tools to control their personal information and how it is shared.
That way, they can make their own decisions about how widely to share their information, and in how much detail.
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