Sandy Parakilas in San Francisco. ‘It has been painful watching. Because I know that they could have prevented it.’ Photograph: Robert Gumpert
Do you think your Facebook account data is stored, secured and kept private only at Facebook? Think again! This is not only a warning for Facebook users, this is a warning for all users of any social media platform or user of any other technology company’s software that we routinely and blindly grant permission and access to our personal data. If you think this is just a Facebook issue…Think again.
Good Morning Everyone! Think of all the information you post on your Facebook account or any other social media platform… You assume that the only company who stores your account data and has access to your personal data is Facebook or the platform you’re currently using, right? Wrong… Do you ever wonder who else may have access to your data other than Facebook and why? Why do they have access to it and what are they’re using it for…without your knowledge or permission? You should be concerned. We should all be concerned. This ARTICLE posted by (Paul Lewis in San Francisco – The Guardian – Tuesday, March 20, 2018) is about a former insider at Facebook who details the lack of security at the worlds most popular social media platform in the world.
We can’t adequately express our concern over data security at Facebook better than Sandy Parakilas, formerly the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012. The insight that Parakilas shares with us should be of no surprise to some of us. However, the general public and the youth are most likely not aware of this issue that centers around data security and and privacy, and what breaches in these areas can result in further down the road, particularly in identity theft and abuse of our personal information. Listen to this particular interview below with Christopher Wylie formerly with Cambridge Analytica (this interview is in the article itself too):
Today’s post centers on Facebook, however it has far broader implications that we’re drawing your attention to. Daily, we download and update apps to our desktops and smartphones and post all kinds of information with a complete lack of understanding as to what we’re granting access to, and blindly granting permissioned access to second and third party organizations. All the permissions and stipulations may be well buried in the details of the user agreement policy’s “fine-print” that we all so easily “Accept” as terms and conditions for using/downloading/updating our apps.
We’re really disappointed that the legal community hasn’t put all their brain power together to create and enforce “simple”, straight-forward options that on the one hand would protect individual users data privacy rights, and at the same time provide their clients with business opportunities to sell/share/market account users data (if granted permission by users in clearly defined options). All that would be needed, is to REQUIRE all organizations wanting to sell/share or market their client data, to place two options before hitting the “Accept” or “Decline” options such as:
- An “OPT-OUT” option should be made available for personal data to NOT be stored/shared/used by any second or third party…and WITHOUT being denied use of the app. In exchange for this option, the organization may provide a software version that has ads or they can charge a small fee to use the app w/all the updates and features. These software options somewhat exist today with free or paid software on our smartphones. HOWEVER… the lack of data rights is NOT spelled-out clearly and upfront, yet is buried in the details of user agreements, and if you don’t “Accept” the ENTIRE user agreement, then you can’t use the software. This option would fairly address both sides of the issue.
- An “Opt-In” option should be made available for those individuals who don’t mind their data being sold/mined/shared/and marketed by 2nd or 3rd parties, and in exchange, they would have software apps that don’t run ads on their smartphones/computers or that this option allows them to purchase the app for free.
Again, these options somewhat exist today. However, the one major component missing for the consumer is the ability to choose up-front, transparent “data privacy options” granting organizations permission as to how their personal data can be used, including storage/ sharing/ accessing/ mining/ selling/ and marketing of their personal data. So, why not standardize the Opt-In/Opt-Out permission options? Clearly stated data privacy options presented upfront and with transparency would allow consumers to better manage the privacy of their data privacy without denying them usage of software simply because they don’t want their data shared. We think this is a reasonable approach. What do you think?
Once again, this breach of data privacy at Facebook is only a wake-up-call… a warning to all of us to press companies and law makers to do a better job of securing our personal data, and give us the option to either opt-in or opt-out how our data can be used.
A second and equally important issue is, standardizing “how” businesses should secure client data…and our rights to data privacy, but these topics are for another discussion at another time… Until then, we encourage you to read this Article from the Guardian to better inform yourself, then make a better decision as to how you use Facebook and other social media platforms and software going forward.
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