Two things that go hand in hand in the social media is Facebook and Privacy. The social networking giant has had a lot of privacy problems, and they continue to have the same problems almost everyday.
A new report by WSJ says that several Facebook applications transmit personal IDs outside Facebook, thus giving access to your name and in some cases your friends names to advertising and internet tracking companies.
However, Facebook has undermined the usefulness of the Facebook UIDs in a new blog post:
Press reports have exaggerated the implications of sharing a UID. Knowledge of a UID does not enable anyone to access private user information without explicit user consent. Nevertheless, we are committed to ensuring that even the inadvertent passing of UIDs is prevented and all applications are in compliance with our policy.
However, another report on a WSJ blog says that a lawsuit has been filed in a California court for breaching a contract with users when it sent data to advertisers which could be used to identify users without their knowledge.
Earlier this month, the Facebook app for iPhone also had a privacy problem where your friends contact numbers were leaked due to a bug in the software. So, how safe is your Facebook data? Well, Facebook data is only as safe as your privacy settings are and those are a bit complicated for a layman to take advantage of. However, there are tools like Reclaim Privacy which allows you to assess your privacy settings and make changes if required.
