Facebook and Security

In early 2011, Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted their National State of the Net Survey and interviewed 2,089 households.  According to Consumer Reports, more than 5 million online U.S. households experienced some type of abuse on Facebook in the past year, including viruses and identity theft.

Facebook is being used for both personal and business purposes.  It was mainly used as a social network for friends to share information and communicate. As with everything else, things changed. Employment recruiters check Facebook to determine whether the person is a fit for a company. Employers check Facebook to check your reputation, and as a result some have been fired because of postings.

Survey Highlights

Facebook users take risks that could result in identity theft, burglaries and stalking.  The survey results indicated that some are taking risks.  Here are the highlights:

15 percent posted their current location or vacation plans.

34 percent posted their full birth date.

21 percent of those with children at home posted their names and photos.

20 percent didn’t use Facebook’s privacy controls.

23 percent didn’t know some of their “friends.”

6 percent had a friend that made them uneasy about security issues.

33 percent weren’t comfortable with all of their “friends”.

Facebook protection

Here is a list of ways you can protect yourself from being a victim:

Use Facebook’s privacy controls.

Set everything accessible only to your friends list.

If you use controls to do a public search, your profile picture, friends list, activities and more will be visible online outside Facebook.

Turn off the “Instant Personalization” feature, so you don’t share where you are with friends, especially those that aren’t really your “friends.”

Look at apps that connect you to Facebook, these sites may have access to your name, user ID, list of friends, gender, networks, and profile picture.

You need to use the privacy settings for your apps and block access to personal information, such as birthday and names of family members.

You need to be cautious concerning what you post on Facebook and use all the privacy controls available.  Don’t share personal information with anyone, such as user IDs and birth dates. Also, beware of the apps that connect you to Facebook.

John Ulzheimer is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Identity Theft

This post was written by John Ulzheimer