Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Keep the Door Closed!

Okay, friends, this is how I see it. There are so many offers of "free ipads" so many scams about friends in distress in Scotland needing you to send them funds. So many ways that someone is trying to get your money! And, then we get the legit but bothersome emails that seem to come at us out of nowhere. How do they find us?

One way seems to be data mining by legitimate sites we sign on to. Facebook, for instance. Now, I love facebook, it's a great way to communicate easily but they aren't immune to using our information to pad their bottom line.

Here's an article on the Huffington Post about Facebook's new plan to get our personal information - that will then be passed on to whoever is willing to pay for it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/18/facebook-privacy-breach-settings_n_766468.html#s159330&title=Change_What_Information

Now, right this minute, if you do apps like Farmville or Mafia Wars, you've opened yourself up to whatever you've written in the information you gave to facebook. I look at it like this. Facebook is like a room that belongs to you. There is one door to this room and only facebook has the key to come in and out (and your friends, of course). When you friend them, they got the key that enables them to communicate with you and you with them. This key gives your friends access to that personal stuff you've approved to be shared. Apps don't have the key. You give them the key when you click "Allow" before you give away those fish or flowers or rutabaga plants. I don't do apps, I refuse to give them the key to my room. For all I know, they could have the same key you gave to facebook, not your friends, but to facebook.

I've always accepted that I have to give facebook the key, otherwise I can't have the room. But, with their soon to be increasing need to have my information, I am thinking...I don't have to give them my real information, do I?

No comments:

Post a Comment