Nine Ways To Protect Yourself on Facebook

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Consumer Reports has posted a lengthy article on Facebook privacy that includes nine tips for protecting yourself and your personal information.

Facebook and other social networks collect enormous amounts of highly sensitive information—and distribute it more quickly and widely than traditional consumer data-gathering firms ever could. That’s great when it helps you find old classmates or see ads for things you actually want to buy. But how much information is really being collected about you? How is it being used? And could it fall into the wrong hands?
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I didn't think they would suggest it, but they did save the best solution for last.

When all else fails, deactivate. When you deactivate your account, Facebook retains your profile data, but the account is made temporarily inaccessible. Deleting an account, on the other hand, makes it inaccessible to you forever. [what they didn't say is that they will still keep the info they've collected on you]

“Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.”
― George Gordon Byron

That being said - I can't help but wonder why one isle of the political party is so very concerned about "big government" getting in their business, but *probably* cannot, or dare not worry about the most intrusive tool ever to be accessible to the masses.

If I were a head hauncho in government, I would have already taken control of facebook, or commandeered access to it so I know about all my "slaves."

That being said - I personally think both sides are just one side, so please don't take my previous statement as inflammatory. And a little side tracked, but since i've thought it, i'll say it - don't fall victim to facebook's IPO coming up - you're only going to lose. Its a shady company. Don't think for a second the plan isn't to take your money.
 
I don't have a facebook account. My facebook protection is perfect.
 
Two simple methods to protect yourself on facebook:

1: Stop posting stuff on facebook. This will prevent you from being on the news tomorrow as the guy everyone else is laughing at after getting arrested/divorced/etc.

2: Delete your account. It prevents #1 from happening.
 
As a mediocre programmer, I'm concerned about what other mediocre programmers do with 'personal data hoarding' or PDH.

There are two ways we can try to be safe from this,
a.) never give out any personal info (very difficult to do)
3.) spam the databases with erroneous data (somewhat easy to do)

Today my name is Larry and I like ice-cream
Tomorrow my name is Bob and I like integrated system solutions.
 
Unfortunately you almost have to at least register yourself an account. FB collects data on those who do and don't have accounts. Better have an account that is completely empty and as restricted as FB lets you than to let them build a profile for you and/or some other punk masquerade as you. Sadly I was forced into creating one to protect my reputation... But it's not a difficult concept to grasp, don't put anything on FB you don't want the entire world to see/know.
 
Facebook is just a fad! Myspace is the future of social networking!!! My friends in the AOL chat room told me so!

But really, common sense should tell you the same thing... don't put personal info on the internet.... don't post pictures of your kids and where they go to school... don't make your password super easy (1,2,3,4,5... same as my luggage!)... try actually talking to people, instead of posting on their wall and fishing for likes...
 
Only one way is needed. Don't join Facebook.

If you do, put it in the name of your cat. Worked for me :)
 
"Some people are sharing too much. Our projections suggest that 4.8 million people have used Facebook to say where they planned to go on a certain day (a potential tip-off for burglars) and that 4.7 million “liked” a Facebook page about health conditions or treatments (details an insurer might use against you)."

I have actual friends that are burglars? There are actually Facebook pages about health conditions?

"Some don't use privacy controls. Almost 13 million users said they had never set, or didn’t know about, Facebook’s privacy tools. And 28 percent shared all, or almost all, of their wall posts with an audience wider than just their friends."

Looks like those 13 million deliberately ignored the prompts that would suddenly appear from Facebook with regards to privacy controls.

"Facebook collects more data than you may imagine. For example, did you know that Facebook gets a report every time you visit a site with a Facebook “Like” button, even if you never click the button, are not a Facebook user, or are not logged in?

Yeah, I know. What would be the point though, really, of having that data? lol
 
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