The Facebook Privacy Thread

[innerSpaceman]

Aside from the privacy (which is not a concern of mine), does anyone think the claims of being more susceptible to hackers holds any water? That's my concern. I don't expect much privacy on the 'net, but I don't want to paint a target on my facebook's back.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Aside from the privacy (which is not a concern of mine), does anyone think the claims of being more susceptible to hackers holds any water? That's my concern. I don't expect much privacy on the 'net, but I don't want to paint a target on my facebook's back.

I don't know what the technical issues Facebook may have with regard to hacking but I do have a sense that it lowers the barriers to social engineering. It blurs what is acceptable use of your information and not, it can be difficult to know when it and where it is a good idea to enter your password. I'm amazed at how many people will apparently give a new social networking site access to their email account for purposes of spamming all their friends to join the fun.

It makes it hard to give clear rules to the less savvy. I can tell my grandmother to never click a link to her bank in an email but that doesn't work so well in Facebook if you want to feel like your participating in all the fun.

[bewitched]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Aside from the privacy (which is not a concern of mine), does anyone think the claims of being more susceptible to hackers holds any water? That's my concern. I don't expect much privacy on the 'net, but I don't want to paint a target on my facebook's back.

I think the concern is more for spammers who would be inclined to put fake "like" buttons on a website to mine data. Apparently there is no easy way to verify that a "like" really is a FB "like".