I had the opportunity to respond to several questions on Internet privacy/security for the campus newspaper the other day and thought what I pulled together might be of more general interest. So, read on and keep your finger on those Facebook privacy settings!
1. Do you know of anyone (including yourself) who has ever been Facebook stalked? If so, please explain.
I do not think I have been "stalked" but someone in London subsumed one my friends' identities and asked me via FB chat to wire money to help her out of an emergency. From the beginning the interaction was suspect and I basically kept the person "on the line" until I could verify by other channels that my friend was obviously not in Europe and not in an emergency. I informed the person on the other end of the chat that I knew they were trying to defraud me and that I thought they should go and so something constructive. They ended the chat and unfriended me from the account, which I thought was awesome. I reported to Facebook that my friends' account was compromised and being used for extortion. Facebook acted very quickly to recapture the account and restore it. I increased the security on my password just in case the hacker came after my profile.
2. What role do you think technology plays in Facebook stalking?
I'm not sure what you are asking here. Facebook is a social technology and obviously plays a significant role in supporting those who choose to utilize it to stalk people. I believe that the impulse to stalk is a matter of the heart. Whether it is loneliness or frustration or some other psychological longing, something in the human heart motivates a person to seek to know another person without encountering the person face to face (or through an email or chat) and to seek to know them without their consent. I think something in this emotional range drives stalking. Facebook and other online technologies (and some offline technologies - going through a person's mail or their trash) provide means for this emotion (or complex of emotions) to take action. I think a more intriguing question is, "Does Facebook make stalking easier?" Most generally, I would have to say, "Yes," because Facebook is a massive world-wide database of information about people. Facebook, essentially, amasses in one place what the stalker seeks - information about people to use for whatever purpose meets the emotional turmoil of the stalker. This is where utilizing the security features of Facebook is crucial. Using these tools you can decide at what level you wish to be known by anyone in the world. Even more generally, of course, a lot of information about each of us exists in databases around the world. Credit card companies, loan companies, schools, social networking sites, cable companies, electric companies, ad infinitum, all have bits of information about us archived electronically and tied into the Internet, whether directly or indirectly. Basically, all of the computers with this information are networked together within each organization and tie in at some point (and with relative levels of security) to the Internet. So, information technology - the digitizing, storage, and mobilizing of information in electronic signals - sets the stage to be a resource for the stalker - it all depends on the savvy of the particular stalker relative to the securities utilized to protect our information.
3. Are you familiar with the applications "Places" and/or "Four Square?"
Yes. I use Places sometimes and GoWalla other times.
4. If so, how do you feel about these applications? Do you think they make Facebook stalking easier?
As a social technology and from the perspective of someone who is involved in marketing and communications these location applications are amazing. As a social technology, these location applications provide another level of possibility for serendipitous connections. Suppose you are check in at a restaurant and one of your friends sees your FB or Twitter post. They immediately know you are where they are and you can connect. Or, suppose someone you haven't met before sees your check in and strikes up a conversation with you. In each case, the social technology of location services has created some personal connection that did not exist before. Situations like these fulfill the purposes of this technology at one level. From a marketing and communications perspective, these location services are amazing because I basically have people marketing my business for me. Assume I am a restaurant and I publicize Places and GoWalla (and other location services) and encourage people to check in. The more people check in, the more viral publicity I receive. If I am doing my job well, these check ins will have positive comments that live in perpetuity online. What an amazing marketing mechanism!
But, every good thing has a shadow side. Location applications certainly make stalking easier. These services tell people both where you are and where you are not. Telling people where you are over time establishes a pattern of behavior that is publicly available to all of your friends on FB (or via other channels) and, depending on your security settings, to others. Using this pattern someone could readily (and easily) find you for whatever purpose they have in mind. On the other side, socially-driven location services tell people where you are not. There is actually a website someone created that pulls location service feeds in and suggests (to make a point) that "so and so" is not at home right now so you can feel free to do what you want to their property. So, on the shadow side of this social technology, the information people post online regarding their location at a particular point in time could be used by someone for the purposes of stalking.
5. What do you think Facebook, Inc. is doing (or not doing) to combat Facebook stalking?
Of course, Facebook has been scrutinized in the past six months or so for its security settings. I believe that this scrutiny has actually (although I don't have the research on this) made people more cautious about their security settings. More people have limited or restricted access to their information in later iterations of Facebook than in the early days. This, interestingly, can subvert the entire purpose of Facebook. Imagine a Facebook where every bit of personal information is locked down so that only already existing friends can see already existing and approved friends. In that imaginary framework, nearly all of our Facebook friends (if not all) would be our actual friends. There would no longer be the serendipity of finding people with whom you have similar interests, or the ability to find long, lost friends, which is the entire purpose of social networking running from Friendster to the present. So, Facebook is doing as much as they can to give people control over their information without subverting the entire purpose of Facebook or social networking in general. The best security when it comes to social networking is to never sign up in the first place.
6. Do you think privacy settings are confusing or easy enough for the average user to understand?
In their latest iteration, the privacy settings in Facebook, in my estimation, are very easy to navigate and very easy to understand for the average user.
7. Do you think Facebook encourages users to protect their privacy?
Again, in the latest iteration, Facebook has more security features turned on than previously. This shows that they are working harder to protect the information people place in their databases. However, we always have to remember that their business is creating interconnections and powerful synergies with the information that people provide. So, they will protect the personal privacy of published information to a degree. They provide user tools to allow people the ability lock down their information to the level they are comfortable. But, internally, they use every bit of information provided to create synergies that feed the social networking, marketing and research purposes of the enterprise. The marketing and research portions of their business is not "stalking" but it is using the information of more than 500 million people to create powerful marketing profiles and producing massive amounts of sociographic data that firms can use for their own business modeling and marketing efforts.
8. How private do you think FB users should make their page?
I've intimated my response to this already in my previous comments. Facebook users should make their information as private as they need to in order to feel secure using the medium. Again, the best way to maintain your privacy is to stay out of the world of social networking. That is the only way to ensure your personal information is kept out of the public eye.
The more interesting question for me is, "What is privacy in a socially networked world?" I just saw a Twitter post from a friend I trust that reads: "Social Media More Popular than E-mail." My University 1000 students don't use e-mail - they text and Facebook (and a few Twitter). Social Networking is clearly the platform moving forward with "being" online - the question is, what does that mean for the doctrine of privacy? I think it kills it. If it doesn't kill it, it greatly curtails the cultural influence it has held in western society since the 1600s (roughly, in my estimation). Social networking is an environment built on collaboration. Social networking deconstructs long standing barriers to communication and creates new possibilities though serendipitous synergies that naturally occur when millions of people get together. The classic notion of privacy restricts this possibility and the value of that possibility has (or if not will) trump the value of privacy in the online world.
So, people should restrict their social networking profiles to the level that they are comfortable. Right now it appears, however, that people are pretty secure sharing tons of information about themselves on several major social networking platforms. This, I believe, creates a more trusting and more creative world as this information is used positively to form new relationships and new possibilities.
9. What can FB users to protect themselves from being stalked?
As stated, if you are sensitive about privacy, do not get involved with social networking. However, if that is not a possibility, get involved in social networking and learn to get comfortable with some loss of personal privacy. Leverage the security settings provided to keep things at the level you are comfortable with, understanding that in the social networked world privacy as once understood is simply not possible. If you are going to put yourself out there, you are out there and, in my opinion, that is okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment