Facebook, What they may not advertise!
In today's world when every social network seems to be giving up users passwords and accounts on a daily basis to the elite hackers of the world it begs the question, is the reward worth the risk? Are we even aware of all the risks we are exposed to by using these sites?
The first question is likely to be the easiest to answer. In most cases the risk vs reward ration almost always becomes worth it. If you do your best to ensure your limiting how much of yourself you put out there then the risk is reduced. This balance is pretty easy to maintain if you use social media for just that, being social. After all we have a lot of experience in meeting people in our daily lives where we have meaningful relationships without giving up our deepest secrets. This of course leads to the next challenge. When we use social media do we somehow feel separated from those social graces and rules we guide our real life conversations with?
Do we feel somehow that we can say anything and share anything without consequence? I find the this part to be interesting. People quickly show who they are inside when they feel shielded by the thought of not being seen. This of course would merit its own discussion that I will just skip for my first blog.
I am more focusing on that stuff we put out there without wondering what happens to that information. What about information you do not intent to put out there? When we post pictures out there do we ever consider how quickly these images spread out across the internet? The fact is once its posted anywhere you lose all control of that image. So it is important to know what that image can tell someone. Aside from the usual ethical nature of posts such as not posting indecent images which by now most people know better about. I am talking to the stuff in the picture that could potentially tell someone too much personal information about you and where you live. There are subtleties in many pictures that we do consider!
For example when you share a selfie of us at our favorite retail store we start narrowing the scope of where we live. What our shopping habits are. These are small details for sure, but they can be clues to those who are interested in less then honorable things. These are things that are important to keep in mind when you share any photo even the most innocent pictures.
The next threat of course to me is the most interesting. This one is the threat that comes from the very places we trust to keep us safe. Such as the social media site itself like Facebook. We sign up to these sites knowing that all our personal details are being stored by them. Our lives being digitally captured by each post and image we store on there servers. These are the things we post consciously and should have already gone through our own internal filters of what we know to be safe for sharing. The scary part is when a story breaks that challenges what we thought Facebook was. The story I am referring to is the one covering the listening in when your App is just open. This is something that you cannot see. Something missed by even those who carefully rip apart that user license agreement. It is what happens without our consent.
Facebook of course quickly announced that they do not record you for the purposes of focusing ads. They did not imply of course that they do not listen. This may or may not be true, I am still testing by speaking openly to my phone everytime Facebook is open on a specific topic to see if ads start changing to reflect words spoken.
The fact is the technology exists to give the power to companies like Facebook to spy on you 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So while we worry about our passwords being compromised we gloss over the fact that we may have a bigger threat we invited in. This information can be used for so many purposes both good and bad. The down side is you do not get to choose either way. It is taken without your permission. We may live in a free democratic society but we are not free when we are always being watched.
If the testing does show that Facebook is secretly listening to me i unfortunately will like many continue to use it as it does make it possible to stay in touch with family in friends in a way we otherwise may not be able to. This does of course mean i will be more conscious of where my mobile device is and when it is better to leave it put away. We as a society need to do our part to keep people safe online. Most of these technology stories never reach the vast majority of our friends and family unless we share it. Together we can educate those who maybe do not follow the world of digital security and each do our part to protect them online. Share security breaches to the sites like Facebook to your friends to make sure they know what they can do to stay safe.
As always never be afraid to challenge your mind!
The first question is likely to be the easiest to answer. In most cases the risk vs reward ration almost always becomes worth it. If you do your best to ensure your limiting how much of yourself you put out there then the risk is reduced. This balance is pretty easy to maintain if you use social media for just that, being social. After all we have a lot of experience in meeting people in our daily lives where we have meaningful relationships without giving up our deepest secrets. This of course leads to the next challenge. When we use social media do we somehow feel separated from those social graces and rules we guide our real life conversations with?
Do we feel somehow that we can say anything and share anything without consequence? I find the this part to be interesting. People quickly show who they are inside when they feel shielded by the thought of not being seen. This of course would merit its own discussion that I will just skip for my first blog.
I am more focusing on that stuff we put out there without wondering what happens to that information. What about information you do not intent to put out there? When we post pictures out there do we ever consider how quickly these images spread out across the internet? The fact is once its posted anywhere you lose all control of that image. So it is important to know what that image can tell someone. Aside from the usual ethical nature of posts such as not posting indecent images which by now most people know better about. I am talking to the stuff in the picture that could potentially tell someone too much personal information about you and where you live. There are subtleties in many pictures that we do consider!
For example when you share a selfie of us at our favorite retail store we start narrowing the scope of where we live. What our shopping habits are. These are small details for sure, but they can be clues to those who are interested in less then honorable things. These are things that are important to keep in mind when you share any photo even the most innocent pictures.
The next threat of course to me is the most interesting. This one is the threat that comes from the very places we trust to keep us safe. Such as the social media site itself like Facebook. We sign up to these sites knowing that all our personal details are being stored by them. Our lives being digitally captured by each post and image we store on there servers. These are the things we post consciously and should have already gone through our own internal filters of what we know to be safe for sharing. The scary part is when a story breaks that challenges what we thought Facebook was. The story I am referring to is the one covering the listening in when your App is just open. This is something that you cannot see. Something missed by even those who carefully rip apart that user license agreement. It is what happens without our consent.
Facebook of course quickly announced that they do not record you for the purposes of focusing ads. They did not imply of course that they do not listen. This may or may not be true, I am still testing by speaking openly to my phone everytime Facebook is open on a specific topic to see if ads start changing to reflect words spoken.
The fact is the technology exists to give the power to companies like Facebook to spy on you 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So while we worry about our passwords being compromised we gloss over the fact that we may have a bigger threat we invited in. This information can be used for so many purposes both good and bad. The down side is you do not get to choose either way. It is taken without your permission. We may live in a free democratic society but we are not free when we are always being watched.
If the testing does show that Facebook is secretly listening to me i unfortunately will like many continue to use it as it does make it possible to stay in touch with family in friends in a way we otherwise may not be able to. This does of course mean i will be more conscious of where my mobile device is and when it is better to leave it put away. We as a society need to do our part to keep people safe online. Most of these technology stories never reach the vast majority of our friends and family unless we share it. Together we can educate those who maybe do not follow the world of digital security and each do our part to protect them online. Share security breaches to the sites like Facebook to your friends to make sure they know what they can do to stay safe.
As always never be afraid to challenge your mind!
No comments:
Post a Comment