Ignoring Privacy in the Current Day and Age can be Expensive

Facebook recently had to pull their Beacon advertising program for a while due to inadequate privacy features.  They started the service off as having to opt- out on a case by case basis instead of giving the option of a complete opt-out.  However, information from companies was still being sent to Facebook in batches and then they claim to be deleting any information that is not a Facebook member or those who have opted out of the service.  Customers are outraged and the company has been feeling the heat.  Zuckerman apologized for their actions on December 5th among advertiser drops such as Coca-cola, overstock.com, and Travelocity.  A full list of advertisers that were scheduled to user the service can be found on a post by dcoates.

As a society, we are becoming more open with our information and we love having the ability to easily share the information to the group of friends we WANT to know.  However, when people start to feel that they are out of control and that their information is being used for the wrong purposes or without their permission, they are becoming more frugal and not so community focused.  As seen in the above case, people start to protest which leads to uncertainty of more risk adverse partners.  Reduced revenue follows as these partners decide to wait out the beginning upheavel.  Travelocity, Coca-cola, and Overstock.com are major accounts and don’t want that kind of bad publicity.  Any company hoping to expand and give their customers more collaborative online features should make sure to check the security of the data being stored or transfered.

Online Security Threats of 2008

As we become more of an online society where we live and interact through the internet through sites like Facebook and Myspace, we add more information to our profiles and our devices.  This leads to there being more information available that hackers can exploit to gain email addresses, personal information, etc. Unless this is correctly secured and users are knowledgeable of what ploys are being used to lure people into vulnerable situations on the internet, hackers have more venues to gain information from internet users.  For example, cell phones are becoming more versatile and useful.  However, to be useful, we must start to upload information such as our contacts onto our phones.  Security professionals have already shown that many of the promenant platforms can be easily hacked.  We have already seen the iPhone security holes being taken advantage of.

I came across a great article entitled Looming Online Security Threats in 2008 that goes into some of the threats we may see in the coming year.  These included exploiting internet users’ trust through Myspace and Facebook, augmented PC attacks that steal personal information, increase in cellular attacks, attacks on corporate databases for proprietary design and engineering information that can be sold, and professionally written email virus scams.  I highly recommend reading this article for a more indepth look.  I wanted to share the following security tips with you though from the article.

— Don’t give away any valuable or sensitive personal information on your MySpace or Facebook profile, or within messages to other members of the network. And don’t click on any links in social network messages from people you don’t know.

— No reputable company will ask for your password, account number, or other log-in information via e-mail or instant message.

— Use one of the many antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs on the market. Often, vendors offer all three functions in a single package. And many Internet service providers offer them free with your monthly subscription.

— Upgrade your browser to the most current version. From Microsoft, that’s Internet Explorer 7. Mozilla’s Firefox is on version 2, as is Apple’s Safari browser.

— Pay attention to the messages from Windows that pop up on your screen, especially in the new Vista operating system. They often contain helpful security information that many users overlook.

— Turn on Windows’ automatic-update function to get Microsoft’s regular security patches.

Education on the scams that are out there can be very helpful in reducing the effects of these “trusting techniques”.  IT professionals use the acronymn PEBKAC (Problem exists between keyboard and chair) to explain when the reason why security or a computer didn’t work is due to the person operating the computer.  Education can greatly reduce this type of error.  A person can’t be prepared for something they don’t know anything about.