Chances are that a majority of people you know are on Facebook. I signed in up in college on the day it was released to the University of Texas students; the site started off as something for Ivy League students only, but then trickled to all other colleges, then high schools, then the general public. It has ballooned into an international behemoth with more than 450 million users, according to CNN.com. While more members means you have more friends, family and colleagues to connect with online, it also means more people seeing your information, many of whom shouldn’t have access to that data. Facebook also developed applications and programs such as Facebook Connect, which share your information with outside parties.
It used to be easy to manage your privacy settings to prevent things from going public, but in the last few years, Facebook has made it harder and harder to control who sees what information. In one of the more recent updates, parts of your profile were set to be publicly viewed by default, so if you didn’t know to go in and change it, you were unknowingly broadcasting things like your party pictures to your boss. At one point I just gave up trying to figure it out and didn’t know if some of my information was publicly visible or not. CNN says the site currently has more than 170 privacy options; no wonder I was lost!
The site received major backlash after several major privacy changes (reductions); many users created and joined Facebook groups protesting the changes and left scathing comments on Facebook’s blog, and many news outlets and blogs spoke out against them. Facebook received enough heat to amend their terms and conditions. Unfortunately, things didn’t get much better; their privacy controls kept becoming more and more confusing, and people refused to stay quiet. According to CNN, on Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that his company has made many mistakes with user privacy. He also revealed that starting this week, they are (finally!) simplifying privacy controls. It will be rolled out to all users in the next few weeks and will let you easily block all information from with just one click. Just like it used to be in the beginning, you can easily select whether you want your data shared with just friends, with friends of friends or with everyone.
Why am I discussing this on a personal finance blog? Online privacy is an increasingly important and complicated issue as more and more users store their sensitive data online. Many of us now use online banking, pay all types of bills online and shop online, leaving traces of our private financial data everywhere we go. Most of it is completely safe, but we all have heard the countless stories of security breaches and hacks. Giving away too much public information on Facebook puts you at even greater a risk; if anyone can see your full name, full address, email address, and phone number, they’re already off to a great start to knowing too much about you. I wouldn’t put my address on my Facebook profile, even if my settings were for friends only!
What do you think? Will you feel better using Facebook now that its privacy settings will be simple again? Has your financial data ever been compromised online?
While you think about that, please read on to learn about 10 of my favorite personal finance blog posts from the past week. One of the posts discusses how to create safe online passwords to protect your personal finance data. Enjoy!
1. The Simple Dollar shows how five mundane substitutions, such as waiting an extra week in between haircuts, can add up to impressive annual savings.
2. With so many reward point, cash back, and frequent flyer credit cards out there, it’s hard to make a decision. Bargaineering teaches readers how to analyze credit card reward programs.
3. Clever Dude lists 10 top-notch personal finance podcasts that will help you learn everything you need to know about money matter.
4. If you’re not careful, you may accidentally end up paying a transaction fee when using PayPal due to its default setting. The Consumerist explains how you can save your cash and prevent PayPal from using the default ATM debit setting.
5. WalletPop discusses and features a new video on Mint.com that illustrates what happens when you let credit card use get out of hand.
6. Consumerism Commentary explains how the government will be regulating credit card swipe fees once the financial overhaul bill is passed.
7. Wondering how the financial reform bill is going to affect you? Five Cent Nickel lists the many ways it will benefit consumers.
8. My Two Dollars advisers readers what to do if they have lost their wallet and how to ward off identity theft.
9. If you’re like most Americans, you use the Internet to access your credit card accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts, PayPal, and more. No Debt Plan offers advice on using strong passwords for your online financial accounts to prevent your private data from getting into the wrong hands.
10. Money Smart Life discusses the many ways your credit will affect you once you graduate college, and what you can do to improve it.
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