I have been happily using facebook for a while now, it is not a life changing experience, but quite fun and interesting at times.
Many people choose not to sign up to facebook because of all the identity theft articles they read in newspapers or from what others said.
It all has turned into a whispers game now, one person telling someone else what they were told and the information becoming distorted and then frightening people into not considering it.
I thought I would write about what I keep hearing and my thoughts.
At time of writing…..
Fact:
– Yes you use an email address to login. However couldn’t you setup another email address that others don’t know about if worried to help reduce concern? E.g. If you own your own domain or isp offers other email accounts etc. Obviously use a good password also.
Help stop the whispers…
– You can choose whether to display your home town, birthday, mobile number, postal address and email address for facebook friends to see.
– You can choose whether to join networks so that complete facebook strangers can view your facebook page or not.
– You can choose to not display your facebook to everyone or to display only to contacts (you can even configure it further).
– You can choose whether to allow complete strangers to view a list of who your facebook friends are or not.
Now I don’t work for facebook and I am not writing an article to say it is secure. I don’t have a clue how secure it is.
Whatever you choose to tell your facebook friends or even the facebook company itself you do so at your own risk. Just like using any other online system. There is a risk and yes it could result in identity theft.
Perhaps to gain a better understanding ask someone you know who is on facebook to give you a facebook tour sometime and discuss what you’ve heard from newspapers and people.