Protect Your Personal Information If You Are One Of The Facebook And Similar Sites Users

Did you know when your friends allow an application, they give away all your information too?

I had read this warning and most interesting post from the developer and owner of Win Patrol, and would like every parent to heed his warning http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2009/12/who-gets-your-personal-information-on.html contained in one of his “Bits From Bill” http://www.winpatrol.com/ and be very careful when you allow your child to roam on the Internet…

The dangers are quite evident when you view these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_QePidL750

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZqS6SEMYj4

  

Are you one of the 350 million Facebook users? I’m a big fan of Facebook and like many I connect daily to see what my friends are doing and to share photos. I am very careful about what I post and what information I allow to be shared. It surprises me how many of my friends will refuse to allow companies to share their information but eagerly give away their personal information.

I quote from the posting:

”Who are these application developers you’re giving your personal information too. One of the most popular developers is San Francisco based Zynga. They’re responsible for the games Farmville, YoVille, Mafia Wars, RollerCoaster Kingdom, Scrabble and dozens more. You’ll never be offered a chance to read Zynga’s privacy policy but the information is typical. They say only your name, address and gender are collected. As in most privacy policies they protect themselves with vague statements like “we don't generally collect any “Personally Identifying Information” about our users”.

I’m not saying the folks at Zynga are evil or have bad intent but I doubt most users realize they’re providing information to this or other little known companies. Most people mistakenly believe it’s just all part of the Facebook experience.”

It’s not just the games. When you take a quiz, or even donate to “Causes” ... you’re providing access to your personal information. When you create or join a “Cause” you’re registering your personal information with Berkeley based Philotic Inc, started by Sean Parker, one of the brilliant co-founders of Napster.

When you sign up for Facebook all these boxes are checked as the default setting. That means if your friend allows an application, all the information you may have set to "Friends Only" is made available.

Facebook has been slow to react to customer concerns but recently announced new privacy options. It’s still up to the individual user to check out their rights and options to protect themselves. If you’re a Facebook user please update your privacy settings. http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2009/12/who-gets-your-personal-information-on.html

Facebook has updated their privacy options.Go to your profile and change your Settings.

Please send me your experiences and comments.