Facebook endured another privacy debacle this week when a security flaw was found, allowing friends to view each other’s private information, including chats and messages. Though the security breech lasted only a few hours, many users are upset that their privacy had been compromised for the second time in less than a month. As Facebook faces formal complaints from a number of consumer advocate groups over privacy concerns and violations, the glitch could not have come at a worse time. With Facebook’s Open Graph rolling out soon, the social networking leader needs to fix all security issues and concerns – or could risk losing users.
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In late December 2009, Facebook revamped its privacy settings, allowing users to control exactly how public certain information could be. Users could make all photos private, but allow strangers to view their basic info. The settings even allowed for control over what Wall posts others could see. Prior to this change, privacy settings were based on a user’s network, such as a school, city or employer. It is understandable that as Facebook grows – the network is more than 400 million users strong – security needs to be upgraded. However, security only seems to be weakening, and Open Graph may be a big reason why.
Facebook aims to use Open Graph to socialize the entire Web, enabling users to integrate the site’s features outside of the main Facebook network. Announced last month at the F8 Developer Conference, Open Graph will most likely require users to change their privacy settings every time they connect with a new Web site, especially if they want to maintain as much privacy as possible. Currently, Open Graph partners are Pandora and Yelp, but many more brands expected to be announced in the near future. The process of connecting to a site using Open Graph allows the program to pull information from your profile, and information from your friends’ profiles, too. Although the potential of Open Graph is exciting, it will impact privacy in a big way.
To read more about Facebook’s privacy issues, visit Sparxoo.com.