Published:
August 07 2008, 12:50 PM
by
Stefan Berteau
In a good example of how seemingly
innocuous personal information can be used to cause significant harm, a British
woman's pictures and information were copied from her Facebook profile and used
to create a false profile on a Canadian fetish site (which itself offers social
networking).
As reported by The
Telegraph and This
Is London, Becky Spraggs was on vacation when she received a call informing
her that four of her pictures from Facebook had been mixed with explicit images
of a woman who resembled her and used to create a profile on FetLife, a social
networking site for the BDSM/fetish community. This profile used her real name
and other information about her, but provided a false biography claiming that
she was "looking to get into soft/hard porn films." The profile
suggested that anyone interested in "using and abusing" her should
call a number and ask for either her or her manager Paul.
The given phone number in fact led to her
ex, Paul Farrow, who dealt with roughly 50 calls a week, including
international calls for which he was being charged. As of this writing,
the profile is no longer up, and Mr. Farrow is reported to have blocked
international calls, which hopefully offers him some relief.
This incident serves as a prime example of
the unintended loss of privacy that often accompanies social networking.
Many users of social networks assume that only people in their immediate web of
friends can see their profile, but this is rarely the case. Of Myspace, Friendster,
Orkut, and Facebook, not one site defaults to a "friends-only"
privacy setting. Orkut, Myspace, and Friendster make profiles visible to
the entire userbase by default. Facebook is somewhat more conservative,
defaulting to "friends and networks" being able to view a
profile. In practice, however, this offers little privacy because
Facebook networks are generally huge, often containing millions of
members. In addition, the location-based networks, such as the "London" network to
which Ms. Spraggs belonged, require no verification to join, so that anyone
could have become part of that network and suddenly have had full access to her
profile.
Facebook does allow users to restrict
access to their profiles, galleries, and other personal information. This
can be done by logging in, then following the "Privacy" link in the
upper right corner, and finally selecting "Profile". This will
allow you to restrict the personal information on your profile to people of
your choosing. Be aware that Facebook treats your photo albums
separately, however. In order to restrict access to pictures in your
photo galleries you must follow the "Edit Photo Albums Privacy
Settings" link on the Profile Privacy page.
Another very important principle
illustrated by this story is that a significant amount of harm can be caused by
someone with access to seemingly innocuous information. With the use of
just her ex's phone number, some perfectly innocent and respectable pictures of
her, and the name and location information from her profile, a malicious party
was able to significantly disrupt the lives of both Becky Spraggs and Paul
Farrow. Many users are improving their privacy practices with regard to
information like bank accounts, social security numbers, and home addresses.
It is important to remember, however, that in the wrong hands almost any form
of personal information can be used to inflict harm.
If you are reading this and are a user of
social networking sites, please go check the privacy settings associated with
each of your accounts. What you find may surprise you. In general,
we propose five rules for protecting your privacy on social networking
sites.
- Don't give out
personal information that can lead to identity theft: your place of birth,
date of birth, or social security number.
- Increase your
privacy settings to "friends only" for both your profile and
your pictures.
- Pictures can last a
lifetime. Only put up pictures/videos that you would want your parents to
see.
- When signing up for
new sites, fill out your privacy settings before you fill out your
profile.
- Friending someone
is not just adding a name to your list. It trusts them with your
information, and should only be done to people you'd trust with your real
life belongings.
Sticking to these rules is quick and simple,
and it gives you control over who you trust with the details of your life.