Another security loophole...

It has been reported by BBC Technology that Facebook has at last sorted out its security flaws which permitted users to view who other users are chatting to or which friend requests other users receive. The chat facility was removed temporarily until it was fixed again and it is now up and running again. A few blogs such as Allfacebook picked on the flaws but avoided blogging about them to curtail mass panic until the flaw was pick. The flaw was first outed by the very reliable TechCrunch.

Experiencing Facebook`s connected profiles first-hand: a tale of bewilderment and weariness.

Having just spent the past hour going through the maze of sorting out my Facebook profile page as a result of the introduction of the 'Connected Profiles' function, I am baffled... Baffled by the effort and time it takes to opt-out of any of the connections you do not want to make public (e.g. location, university etc), and baffled by how cumbersome it is to find out what the 'connected profiles' functionality is all about.

The help centre of Facebook has a section on Community Pages and Profile connections which is meant to guide the user gently through it all means and the impact of this new functionality on the privacy of the user. However, the section is not very user-friendly for many reasons. Firstly, you have to click on each question to find out the answer rather than all the answers appearing alongside the questions. This is very cumbersome specially as to find out what it is all about, you really do have to find the answers to most of the questions. Secondly, there is a line which appears time and time in many of the answers, almost as a sort of incantation: 'Connecting to Pages is now the main way to express yourself on your profile.' I have tried to find out what this means but to no avail yet: it sounds quite creepy actually!!!

If like me, you are sceptical of connecting to these community pages (and every user should be aware that many community pages are currently being under construction which means that there are currently no privacy settings for these pages: i.e. your data is out there for all to view!), then you will end up with a very boring profile page as mine: completely empty!! I am not even sure if I have a profile picture anymore!! If my current research did not focus on Facebook in part, this is the time where I would have said: 'Hasta la vista baby' in my best Arnie voice!

Timeline of Facebook`s privacy policy

Interesting article by the EFF on the eroding privacy policy of Facebook over the years @ https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline

Connected Profiles and Facebook

Certain worrying changes have been announced by Facebook at its f8 developer conference last week. Basically, Facebook is going to introduce a 'Connection Profiles' functionality which means that the information found on your Facebook profile page (e.g. location, interests etc) will be linked to the corresponding pages on Facebook (e.g. if London is your location, you will be connected to the London page on Facebook). Users who choose not to use this functionality will be left with the situation where their profile page will remain empty. Basically, only information which is linked via the 'Connected Profile' functionality will appear on the profile page of the user.

Facebook justifies the introduction of this new functionality on the ground of offering users more connections options and in particular the option to make deeper connections to things which matter to Facebook users such as interests etc. The real reason of course is that it means that Facebook will have access to users` data in a more focussed way (i.e. linked to their interests) and hence can make more revenue through targeted advertising.

There are two main issues raised by the introduction of this new functionality. Firstly, it will be imposed as a default functionality (i.e. if you do not opt out then this will be the default setting of your account). This of course means that users have the burden of having to understand yet again another functionality and evaluate whether or not they want to use this. However as past research has shown, Facebook users tend not to change the default settings for different reasons (e.g. lack of awareness, extra burden of having a specific setting for each type of data etc). So users will be increasingly at risk as they might choose to keep this functionality as a default option without being aware that this means that their data is being furthered distributed across the network.

A second important problem is that of choice. Although users are being given the illusion of having the choice here to opt out of this new functionality, realistically speaking, there is not much choice. If you opt out of the new functionality, then your profile page will be blank.

According to a FAQ from Facebook's Help Center:

"If you don't want to connect to any Pages, the corresponding sections on your Profile will be empty. Connecting to Pages will now be the main way to express yourself on your profile, and you can always edit your profile to remove specific suggested Pages that you don't want to connect to."

This new functionality will be launched fairly soon. It has already been launched in some part of the US. It would be interesting to see how users will react to this new change and whether Facebook will be forced to backtrack due to users` reactions as it has done in the past in relation to the changes to its privacy settings.

Facebook users beware...

Another day, another Facebook story in the news. Today Facebook has finally rolled out its new privacy settings for all its users. Before the global roll out of the privacy settings, Mark Zuckenberg of Facebook, introduced and explained the new privacy settings to its user via an open letter. According to Zuckenberg, the aim of the new privacy settings is to simplify the latter to users, no doubt, with a view to making them more accessible and less confusing to its users following many complaints including the one from the Canadian Privacy Commissioner.

Hence the new privacy settings are supposed to be clearer, easier to use and more effective at protecting the personal data of Facebook users. However, as rightly pointed out by the EFF, the new settings push users to share their information further. For more on this, see the illuminating article from the EFF which has links to further information.

If you thought that only your friends/network could read your status updates, then you will soon be wrong!

It has been reported today that both MySpace and Facebook have signed a deal with Google which will allow its users` publicly available status updates to be fully searchable on the search engine. Google has a similar agreement with Twitter and it is reported that the new agreement with Facebook and MySpace will go live in a few days.

This is a very worrying development for MySpace and Facebook users who have had no say in this matter and will now have their status updates fully searchable and visible on Google to all and sundry if they have not changed their default privacy settings. Past research has shown that most Facebook users use default privacy settings (rather than higher ones) which means that their accounts are fully visible to the rest of Facebook users in their networks. This new deal will also mean now that their updates will be fully indexed and searchable via Google. Cyber Panda thinks that in the new few days, Facebook/MySpace users as well as privacy bodies will raise the alarm bell which will force the companies to either rethink this deal or provide more protection for users` data.

i2015 or the New EU Digital Strategy

The New EU Digital Strategy which is currently being shaped by the EU will put consumers at the core of i2015, the EU`s action plan for digital economy. In effect, this means creating a consumer-friendly single market for online services.

Relatedly, the new incoming Spanish EU President is also shaping his digital agenda which is rumoured to make the use of VoIP mandatory on mobile handsets. If this does happen, it will no doubt have a significant impact on traditional telecom service providers as well as on principles of net neutrality. i2015 should be delivered in spring 2010 so not long to go now before we can ascertain its detailed contents.

Wikipedia`s spiral of death?

Dear All
Yet again, the doctorate has taken over my whole life leaving with not much time to blog anymore!! However, now that things have slightly calmed down, I will try to blog more frequently. The operative word being try!!

An interesting research has been carried out by Ortega on the fall of the number of editors of Wikipedia and the reasons for such fall. He also predicts that this worrying trend is likely to continue. The Times also reports some infighting between Wikipedia writers which may also explain the downward spiral in the number of editors (alongside lack of time and reaching saturation point in terms of articles). It will be interesting to see how Wikipedia fares for the next year and the implications if the downward trend continues. It could also be that this research provides an added bonus for either more volunteer editors or for existing ones to contribute more if the main reason for the downward spiral is lack of time.

A new blog is born: FBHive!!

CyberPanda is loving the new blog FBHive which deals with all things related to Facebook: the news, the rumours, and the controversies!! And this new blog has started with a bang as it has disclosed a major security flaw which enables any user to access the basic information of other users even when such information has been protected by its owner (via privacy settings). Amazingly, the blog reports that it took Facebook 15 days to deal with this issue!!!

The flaw has now been fixed but you can still see how it could have been done in the past by checking out the FBHive blog. Amazing footage!!! As a security expert from Sophos has noted, what is worrying is that such a flaw existed and that users` data have been at risk for an unknown period until the flaw was fixed. In addition, users do not whether their data have been 'hacked' into by any other user in this manner. So many privacy issues are raised by this latest Facebook related issue.

From Digital Britain to Twitter.

It has been a long time since CyberPanda has written a post but she has been trying to put together a massive chapter and hence the prolongued absence.

However these past few weeks have been full of technology-legal news: where does one start? The UK Digital Report has been published last week attracted some criticisms regarding its proposals which many view as just not being enough.

The world has not been the same since the Iranian elections and the elections have rocked the world of Twitter as the latter has become a very important forum of exchange of information and views on what is currently taking place in Iran. Many Iranians are able to tell the world what is happening via Twitter and this is becoming even more important with news today that the BBC`s correspondent in Tehran has been asked to leave Iran and other alleged reporting restrictions.

Finally and on different note, the alleged cybersquatting of Facebook`s newly launched username option where third parties are alleged registering the names of well-known persons with a possible view to reselling those at a later stage.

CyberPanda will definitely try to post more often in the future!!