Identity Theft Expert Speaker John Sileo » facebook privacy

7 Steps to Stem Facebook Privacy Bleeding

John Sileo — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 17:14:07 +0000

Why You Should Share Facebook Privacy Settings with Friends

A true friend does more than just post updates about their conquests on your wall. They share information with you that makes your life better, even if it isn’t exactly what you want to hear. And you do the same for them. But are your friends unwittingly sharing too much information about you with others (strangers, advertisers, app developers, scammers)? Probably. For example, if they (or you) haven’t customized your privacy settings lately, you are giving Facebook permission to:

Publish your name, photo, birth date, hometown and friend list to everyone?
Indirectly share your restricted data with outsiders through your friends?
Let your friends check you in to embarrassing locations where you aren’t?
Post your Likes as advertisements on friends’ walls using your name?
Authorize Google to index, access and share your information on the web?

Taking simple steps will make a significant difference. Start with the 7 Facebook Privacy Settings below and ask your friends to do the same. It benefits their privacy and yours. The video to the left quickly walks you through how to get to each level of privacy setting. If the video is too small for you to see the pointer, simply click on the four arrows in the bottom right-hand corner of the video viewer (to the right of the YouTube logo) to view in full-screen mode. For better resolution, use the drop down menu to switch to 720 HD.

7 Facebook Privacy Settings to Share with Your Friends

Hide Your Hometown, Friends & Interests from Strangers. You may want every last soul on Facebook to know who your friends are, but your friends might not appreciate being part of your popularity contest. And believe me, you don’t want outsiders knowing where you live, where you were born and what interests you. To block people other than your friends from seeing your these items, in the upper right hand corner of your home Facebook screen once you are logged in, click Account>>Privacy Settings. Then go to View Settings (under Connecting on Facebook). Set See your friend list, See your current city and hometown, See your education & work and See your likes, activities and other connections to Friends Only. You can even block everyone, including friends, from seeing these personal tidbits by clicking on the Everyone button, selecting Customize and choosing Only Me.
Restrict (or alter) Your Personally Identifying Information (PII). Facebook PII includes your Birthday, Address, Email, IM Screen Name and Phone Numbers. With just your name, birthdate and hometown, a scammer can easily recreate your Social Security number, steal your identity, or rob your home while you’re on vacation. My recommendation is to leave these fields blank in the first place (where possible) or fill them with partial or inaccurate information (make up a birthdate that is close to yours but not exact. Please note this may be in violation of Facebook’s user policy.). Either way, you should also limit others from accessing your PII. Click on Account>>Privacy Settings and then Customize Settings (towards the bottom of the sharing grid – look for the tiny pencil). Each drop down box to the right allows you to Customize your setting for that item. Using the Customize option, set Birthday (under Things I share) and Address, IM Screen Name, Email, Phone Numbers (under Contact information) to Only Me. Consider setting Religious and political views and Interested in to Only Me or Friends Only as well. The primary way a social engineer (information con artist) exploits you is by understanding what interests you.
Stop Broadcasting Your Whereabouts in Places. Like the popular application Foursquare, Facebook Places allows you to check in to real-world locations and share your whereabouts with friends (so that burglars know exactly when to rob you). There are two relevant settings regarding Places. First of all, you should limit which users can see which places you can check in to. Click on Account>>Privacy Settings and then Customize Settings (see the first video for direction). Set Places you check in to (under Things I share) to Only Me (using the Customize feature) if you want to disable Places or to Friends Only if you want your friends to know your location. In a very strange default setting, Facebook allows your friends to check you in to places (e.g., a friend checks you in to a strip club while you are at the library). To turn this off, on the same screen, click on Edit Settings next to Friends can check me in to Places (under Things others share). In the drop down menu, choose Disabled and click Okay.
Limit How Your Photos & Videos are Shared. If you allow everyone to see photos or videos in which you are tagged (the default), anyone can post a compromising photo of you (friend or otherwise) and then share it with the world by tagging you in the photo. This can lead to some very embarrassing situations (you’d never post the pictures taken at the bachelorette party, but the scorned bridesmaid just might). There are two settings you need to change to fix this. First, click on Account>>Privacy Settings and then Customize Settings (find the pencil). Click on Edit Settings next to Photos and videos you are tagged in (under Things others share). Change the drop down menu to Customize and change the setting to Only Me if you don’t want others to see your tagged photos or to Friends Only if you want your friends to see the tagged photos. Click Save Settings. Then, in respect for your friends, make sure you aren’t accidentally allowing their friends to see photos in which you tag them. To do this, go to Account>>Privacy Settings. Towards the bottom of the page (above the pencil) is a check box that says Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them. Uncheck this box.
Restrict Google and Apps from Mining Your Identity. By default, Facebook allows search engines like Google and applications (apps) like Farmville access to certain personal information. After all, Facebook is in the business of inventorying your identity and then selling it to vendors and advertisers. To regulate how much is shared, click Account>>Privacy Settings and then Edit your settings (under Apps and Websites in the bottom left-hand corner). First, go to Public search and Edit Settings. Unclick the Enable public search check box to keep the search engines out of your profile. If you use your Facebook profile for business and want to be searchable, leave public search enabled. Next, go to Apps you use and click Edit Settings. Review and Edit every app that has access to your private information or delete the access entirely. Having all of your social networking profiles connected and using Facebook as a centralized login for convenience is a recipe for privacy disaster.
Limit What’s Accessible Through Your Friends. No matter how tightly you lock your privacy down in Facebook, if you don’t restrict what strangers, vendors, advertisers and Friends of Friends can see through your friends, you have done very little to actually protect yourself. Here’s how to limit what your friends can share (knowingly or unknowingly). First, click Account>>Privacy Settings and then Edit your settings (under Apps and Websites in the bottom left-hand corner). Next to Info accessible through your friends, click Edit Settings. You will see an entire list of data that can be accessed through your friends Facebook page, EVEN IF THE SAME INFORMATION ISN’T ACCESSIBLE THROUGH YOUR PAGE (because you customized your privacy settings in steps 1-5). This is quite possibly the most devious aspect of Facebook. I only have two or three items checked here – those pieces of information that I wouldn’t mind seeing on the front cover of USA Today. That is how public these bits of data become if you allow your friends to share them.
Turn On Your Account Security Features. Facebook has several built-in security features (turned off by default) that make your social networking a safer virtual world. Click on Account>>Account Settings and then Security (left column). First, under Secure Browsing (https), check the box next to Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible. The gives you bank-like security when accessing your Facebook pages. Under Login Notifications: When an unrecognized computer or device tries to access my account, check the box next to Send me an email. That way, if someone gains unauthorized access to your Facebook account on a non-registered computer (your computers and phones will be registered), Facebook automatically locks the user out. If you don’t mind sharing your mobile phone number with Facebook (I don’t share my # with them), you can implement a third security feature. Under Login Approvals: When an unrecognized computer or device tries to access my account, check the box next to Require me to enter a security code sent to my phone.

If you just took these first 7 Steps to protect your Facebook privacy – congratulations – your profile and data are more secure than 99% of the Facebook population. Now it’s your turn to be a good friend – pass this on to someone you care about, and ask them to spend a few minutes protecting themselves. It’s a win-win for everyone.

John Sileo is the award-winning author of Privacy Means Profit and a keynote speaker on social media privacy, identity theft prevention and manipulation jujitsu. His clients include the Department of Defense, Blue Cross, Pfizer and Homeland Security. Learn more at www.ThinkLikeASpy.com or contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Gets Hacked

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:19:36 +0000

While Facebook privacy issues are becoming a concern for most users, you would think that the CEO of Facebook should at least be protected. Apparently that is not the case. Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page was hacked last week. The founder of the social networking giant found himself to be a victim of what many users often face, and I hope it prompts him to incorporate more robust security into the fabric of Facebook. In fact, my experience is that people’s willingness to pay attention to privacy and data security goes up exponentially when they have experienced a breach first hand.

Here is what The Guardian had to say about Zuckerberg’s breach:

“Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page has been hacked by an unknown person who posted a status update suggesting that the site should let people invest in it rather than going to the banks. The page belonging to the 26-year-old Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder who was named Time‘s Man of the Year in 2010, was hacked some time on Tuesday.” (The Guardian)

This hacking comes at the heals of the announcement that Facebook is worth about $50 billion after investors such as Goldman Sachs and a Russian venture capital firm started to take interest in the company. Many believe that those who made Facebook what it is today, the users, should be able to invest and profit from the billion dollar company. One significant breach of Facebook’s data could reduce that valuation by about 40%, as the loss of user trust would be devastating.

The following message was posted to Zuckerberg’s page:

This posting has since been removed and there has been no comment from Facebook on the hacking. This just goes to show you that if the CEO and Founder of Facebook can get hacked, so can the average user. Perhaps now Zuckerberg and the team at Facebook will take a closer look at privacy settings.

John Sileo trains organizations on Information Offense: Controlling identity, data and social media exposure before an attack takes place. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer, Homeland Security, FDIC, FTC, Federal Reserve Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield and hundreds of corporations and organizations of all sizes. Learn more about his high-content financial speeches.

Facebook Email: Putting Every Last Egg in One Basket

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:20:21 +0000

Facebook wants a piece of every social interaction you have, which is why they are poised to offer you a free email account, just like Gmail or Hotmail.

Facebook’s newest features (email and eventually a built-in search engine) are aimed at making their website your one-stop shop for all things internet. Rumor has it that at 10:30am PT, Facebook will offer their existing users email addresses. And millions of existing users will take them up on their offer because it will be cool to have a Facebook email account and because we are all in short supply of email accounts to check 24/7. Other sources are saying that Facebook will soon be offering a search engine as well.

As of December 2009, Gmail had over 1.8 million monthly users. Facebook currently has more than 500 million active users – even if a fraction of them use Facebook’s webmail in place of Gmail, it will significantly decrease Google’s hold on the industry. And Hotmails, and Yahoo’s. Why check 3 sources of information (mail, social networking, search) when you can simply check one?

For starters, you are putting all of your data eggs in one basket. Not only will Facebook control your profile (full of personally identifying information), your updates (that let them know what you are up to – if you think that this can’t be digitally scanned and analyzed, think again), your current location (thanks to Places), your photos, videos, friends and groups (I never knew you were a closet Democrat!), now they will be overseeing your email content (yes, they will reserve the right to scan your emails and advertise to you and those whom you email based on that content) and your search engine keywords (if they do add a search engine function and you type in depression medication, Facebook and all of their partners now know that you have a higher chance of being depressive).

All of which means that Facebook is increasingly becoming a One-Stop Shop for Marketing Data Miners, Identity Thieves, Stalkers, Vengeance Seekers, Cyber Bullies, and of course, friends.

Let me ask you a question? Would you put every last penny you have in one investment? Would you eliminate all of your friends except your very closest one? Would you share everything about yourself to only a single individual? Probably not. The wise among us know how critically important it is to diversify a portfolio, to surround ourselves with many good people, not just one, to compartmentalize information so that no one person, no single company knows everything about us.

But Facebook is doing exactly that – collecting every gram of our personal information, social and otherwise, so that it can be aggregated, analyzed and sold. And the fault is still partially ours, because we will take them up on their free email.

And you probably won’t even have to do anything to sign up, BECAUSE FACEBOOK WILL SIGN YOU UP BY DEFAULT, just like they do with everything else. Whether you want it or not, you will now have a Facebook email address that is automatically populated with the Facebook email addresses of all of your friends (because they know who your friends are and know their email addresses already). It will be like Google Buzz all over again, but we will overlook it, because we are so damned interested in what our high school girlfriend is doing these days that we forget to pay attention to something that counts.

It is being speculated that Facebook Email will offer such things as photo slideshows, a better conversation thread, integrated contact bios, and contact groups. Apparently other email moguls are worried as well. AOL introduced their new webmail interface this morning to try to combat Facebook’s big announcement. We won’t have to wait long!

While Facebook is making their announcement, John Sileo is delivering a speech on Social Networking Safety for the Department of Defense. To help your organization anticipate Facebook fallout and other forms of social networking over exposure, contact him directly on 800-258-8076.

Facebook Privacy Breach – Eventually, We’ll Lose our Trust

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:28:06 +0000

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Facebook apps are sharing more about you than you think.

The Journal stated in their article, Facebook in Privacy Breach, that many of the most popular applications on the site are transmitting personal information about you and even your friends to third party advertisers and data companies. Apps such as BumperSticker, Marketplace, or Zynga’s Farmville (with over 50 million users) can be sharing your Facebook User ID with these companies. This can give as little information as your name, or as much as your entire Facebook Profile. In some cases, your data is being shared even if you have set your Facebook privacy settings to disallow this type of sharing.

According to the Journal:

“The most expansive use of Facebook user information uncovered by the Journal involved RapLeaf. The San Francisco Company compiles and sells profiles of individuals based in part on their online activities.. The Journal found that some LOLapps applications, as well as the Family Tree application, were transmitting user’s Facebook ID numbers to RapLeaf. RapLeaf then linked those ID numbers to dossiers it had previously assembled on those individuals… RapLeaf then embedded that information in an Internet-tracking file known as a cookie.”

RapLeaf in turn transmitted this Facebook ID and user information to a dozen other advertising firms.

Rapleaf has said that it was inadvertent and they are working to fix the data leakage problem. On their website they have posted a response to the article.

“RapLeaf has taken extra steps to strip out identifying information from referrer URLs…When we discovered that Facebook IDs were being passed to ad networks by applications that we work with, we immediately researched the cause and implemented a solution to cease the transmissions. As of last week, no Facebook IDs are being transmitted to ad networks in conjunction with the use of any RapLeaf service”.

This Facebook privacy breach is affecting tens of millions of users and even those that have taken the proper precautions with high privacy settings.

This revelation goes against my latest post Facebook, Cigarettes and Information Control. I used this post to make users aware that although there are privacy issues with Facebook, they have given you the proper controls to protect yourself. The Wall Street Journal investigation clearly shows that Facebook is not doing their part. While you can supposedly better secure your privacy settings after last week, Facebook is clearly not holding their third party applications to the same standard.

Many of these third-party applications have declared that they are not keeping or using this data. Regardless, the transmission of this information violates the Facebook Privacy Policy. Facebook has said that it is the applications that are violating their privacy policy – not them directly. A Facebook spokesperson had this to say:

“Our technical systems have always been complimented by strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information.”

Many wonder if there is there anything you can do to prevent this or protect themselves from personal data leakage. The answer right now – is no. Because many of the most popular applications used on Facebook are transmitting your personal data, it is hard to do much more than adjust your privacy settings to the highest level and realize that you are trading the security and privacy of your personal information in order to connect with your Facebook friends. This is where Facebook needs to step up and deliver on what they promise their users. If you go the extra mile to hide your personal information from third parties, they need to make sure that your information is protected.

Sileo’s Fox & Friends Appearance

John Sileo — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:45:59 +0000

For media inquiries, please contact Liz on 800.258.8076.

Sileo Discusses Facebook Privacy on Fox & Friends Tomorrow

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:22:36 +0000

Don’t Miss John on Fox & Friends Tomorrow Morning!

September 15th, 2010 7:15 a.m. ET, 4:15 a.m. PT

Join Fox and Friends hosts Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade as they interview John Sileo about Facebook Privacy, Identity Theft and John’s latest book Privacy Means Profit on Fox’s morning show.

Facebook: Press 2 For Law Enforcement

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:59:40 +0000

I received an email last night from a well-known TV anchor wanting my input on a new Facebook issue. He’d read that when calling Facebook Headquarters, the automated attendant comes on and gives you options to reach each department, and the second option was to press 2 for “law enforcement.”

It could seem odd to many, but it’s true. If you call the Facebook Headquarters (650-543-4800) and reach the switchboard, the 1st option is “For customer support, press 1″ and the second option is “For law enforcement, press 2″. Law enforcement comes ahead of business development, marketing, press, and employment verification in the list of options.When you press 2, the next message says: “This message is only for members of law enforcement. Please note that due to a very large volume of incoming calls, the current call back time is two to four business days. For a faster response, please leave your work authorized email address… A member of Facebook’s security team will email in a timely manner.” Which means that Facebook is very busy fielding calls from law enforcement.

The anchor, and the rest of us, want to know why!

Facebook receives all kinds of requests by law enforcement, as it is essentially a diary of each and every user. Don’t confuse it with a typical diary of the pre Web 2.0 era. The modern diary (or dossier, as I more commonly refer to social networking profiles) is a photo journal, video log, friendship org chart, location status, written history, browsing analyzer, that is so effective because it can be so addictive. In other words, the Facebook activity of an average user is a digital representation of that user’s identity. So, to net it out, here several reasons law enforcement officers call Facebook:

Tracking listed sex offenders for inappropriate use of the Internet
Civil dispute subpoenas (domestic cases, child custody, harassment, etc.)
Evidence used in the discovery process (establishing intent, state of mind, relationships, etc.)
Cases of libel or defamation
Terrorist activity tracking and fundraising
Background checks for local, regional and federal governmental positions
Background checks on potential jurors (see tomorrow’s story about a juror who was dismissed because of a Facebook post)

This is a fascinating and under-reported aspect of social networks – they are providing an open book on people (for good and evil) that used to take investigators (and scammers) weeks or months to collect. All you really need is a subpoena, or to friend the person on whom you are collecting data.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Security Speakers. You can learn more about Facebook Safety and how to protect yourself online here. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

How to Disable Facebook Places

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:22:52 +0000

Last week Facebook introduced a new location tracking application called Facebook Places. This gives users the ability to check in with Facebook from their mobile device and update their friends (and even tag their friends) on where they are. What many Facebook users don’t realize is that this tool is currently activated by default, and in order to turn it off, users have to go in and adjust their privacy settings. Until you do that, your friends can check you in to different locations (and you may not even be there!).

Here is the step by step process to disable Facebook Places:

1. Log into your Facebook account, and at the top right drop down menu under Account click Privacy Settings.Once you are in Privacy Settings you will see this screen:

2. Click Custom (if that isn’t your selection already) and then click below 0n Customize Settings.

3. You should see the following screen, where you will need to make 2 changes – first, to Things I share and then to Things others share. Under Things I share click on the drop-down box next to Places I check in to click custom and chose to make this visible to Only Me.

5. Scroll down on the Customize page to Things others share:

Under Things others share click Disabled to the right of Friends can check me in to Places.

One More Thing…

There is one last step you should take. You need to adjust one last setting that allows third-party applications (such as quizzes and games) used by your friends to access your location data. Facebook makes it difficult by stating that you only need to “uncheck the new box in your Privacy Settings under “Applications and Websites.” Facebook should have specified which box they were talking about, and they should NOT have turned this on by default. Alas, in reality, we’re not working with what Facebook should do, but what we must do to turn off data leakage.

Go back to the main privacy page (above) and under the heading, “Applications and Websites.”click on “Edit your settings.” You should now be looking at a screen similar to the one below. Click on the “Edit Settings” button across from “Info accessible through your friends.”

You should see a pop-up window (like the one below) that lists a variety of identity information from your profile including biography, birthday, hometown, current city, and so forth. Any of these items that are checked off are available to third-party applications used by your friends.

Find the checkbox called “Places I check in to,” and uncheck it (if you don’t want third-party applications that your friends use to harvest your check-in data). While you are here, uncheck any other data that you don’t want your friends sharing with corporate America.

TIP: Third-party applications you use personally can gather your geographic data only if you authorize that application to do so. The downside is that if you don’t want an application to access your location data then you won’t be able to use that application.

These steps will help tighten your security and minimize the amount of location tracking data that is stored and shared. Facebook, however, will always reserve the right to collect and utilize this data internally, but that’s the price you pay for using Facebook. Although this disables Facebook Places now, it is best to stay current on the changes that Facebook is making and always check your privacy settings to make sure that you are protected.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Security Speakers. You can learn more about Facebook Safety and how to protect yourself online here. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

Facebook Hits 500 Million Users: 3rd Largest Country

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:55:19 +0000

Facebook has the Population of the Third Largest Country

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 marked a big day for Facebook. CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg announced in a blog post that the social networking website hit over 500 million users in only 6 years.

If you take a look at the worlds largest countries in terms of population (as of today according to Wikipedia) you find that China is #1 with 1,339,130,000, India is #2 with 1,184,513,000 and #3 is the United States with only 309,944,000. This would mean that if Facebook were a real country with their population of 500,000,000, then it would clearly surpass the USA for the #3 ranking.

Many believe that Facebook will hit a billion users in less than a year by looking the rapid growth they have encountered since their founding. With their fast expansion the privacy issues on the website keep mounting as well. Make sure when you are using Facebook you are using it with the best possible protections – your common sense. Click here to learn more on Facebook Safety for users and parents of users.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers & sought after Identity Theft Experts after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. John’s latest book Privacy Means Profit, hit stands August 9, 2010 and bridges the gap between personal identity theft and corporate data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

Facebook Installs a Panic Button for Children

Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:24:39 +0000

According to a recent Yahoo! article, Facebook has created a new “Panic Button” for London users to help protect children on the social networking site. This new function gives the youngsters the ability to easily report a problem or suspicious activity to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook.

The Panic Button will automatically appear on the homepage of users between the ages of 13 and 18 years old. Recently Facebook has been scrutinized because of their relaxed privacy controls and lack of protection for all users, including children. This marks another effort by Facebook to attempt to calm users concerns and team up with other organizations to offer protection to younger participants. In the US, Facebook is teaming up with the Parent Teacher Association to help keep children informed and safe while using the website.

Facebook vice-president Joanna Shields added: “There is no single silver bullet to making the Internet safer but by joining forces with CEOP we have developed a comprehensive solution which marries our expertise in technology with CEOP’s expertise in online safety”.

It is important to be educated when dealing with any form of social media or social networking website. You should know the ins and outs, pros and cons, risks and rewards to using these online tools. For more information on Facebook Safety and protecting your children online, check out our Facebook Safety Survival Guide.

Read the Entire Article: Facebook installs ‘panic button’ for children

John Sileo is the award-winning author of Stolen Lives, Privacy Means Profit and the Facebook Safety Survival Guide. His professional speaking clients include the Department of Defense, the FTC, FDIC, Pfizer, Prudential and hundreds of other organizations that care about their information privacy. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.