Hidden dangers of Facebook

Over the last few years, Facebook’s growth has been phenomenal. The world’s no. 1 social networking site also recently beat Google to become the most visited Web site in the US for an entire week at a stretch. However, the site has also lately being receiving lot of flak for its privacy policies.

Some noted risks of using Facebook. They are:

1. Your information is being shared with third parties.

According to Facebook policy as on April 2010, “When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. The default privacy setting for certain types of information you post on Facebook is set to “everyone.” Because it takes two to connect, your privacy settings only control who can see the connection on your profile page. If you are uncomfortable with the connection being publicly available, you should consider removing or not making the connection.”


2. Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign.

In March, private email addresses that many Facebook users wanted to keep hidden were revealed publicly on a multitude of Facebook profiles. The glitch was later resolved by Facebook.


3. Facebook ads may contain malware.

Recently, a Facebook event invitation was reportedly sent to some over 2,300 people, asking "Would you like a Facebook phone number?" However, the message was actually a scam and the users who entered their passwords in response to the message in turn sent the whole thing to their friends lists too.

"This was a phishing scam and account appears to have been compromised," read a statement from Facebook.


4. Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable.

On May 6th, the popular social network patched a major security bug that allowed users to snoop on their friends' private chats, and view their pending friend requests. The exploit forced Facebook to temporarily disable chat.



5. Scammers are creating fake profiles.

Earlier this week, 15 privacy and consumer protection organizations filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, alleging that the site manipulates privacy settings to make users' personal information available for commercial use.

And finally...


6. Facebook 'fueling divorce'.

British marriage counsellors claim that social networking sites like Facebook are contributing to separations and divorces. British divorce firm Divorce-Online said Facebook was cited in one-fifth of the divorce petitions it processed last year. It emerged that a number of bored middle-aged users in their 40s and 50s have had their lives thrown into turmoil as they try to reconnect with childhood sweethearts through the sites.