70% don't trust Facebook with their personal information
Summary: Do you trust Facebook with your personal information? Have you changed your Facebook privacy settings? For any online service, make sure to take advantage of all the settings at your disposal.
70 percent of Facebook users do not trust the social networking giant with their personal information. Approximately 60 percent proactively adjusted their privacy settings in 2011. This is puzzling given what we heard late last year: 70 percent of Facebook users are comfortable with what they share.
The new data comes from a survey which polled Facebook users about their sharing and posting habits, as well as changes they have made to their profile and privacy settings, conducted by online privacy company Abine. The firm points out these numbers further prove the growing conflict of interest between Facebook and its users.
On the one hand, Facebook needs to get its users to share more information in order to keep advertisers satisfied. On the other hand, Facebook needs to keep its members using the service without losing their trust.
Here are some of the results:
- 76 percent growth in the number of Facebook users adjusting their privacy setting between 2009-2011.
- Only 8 percent of users polled have never changed their privacy settings.
- 43 percent increase in the number of Facebook users who said they are “very concerned” about their privacy after the IPO compared to before the IPO.
While Facebook users seek more privacy, they continue to share large quantities of personal information on their profiles:
- 88 percent reported sharing gender.
- 84 percent reported sharing photos.
- 74 percent reported sharing date of birth.
- 63 percent reported sharing relationship status.
- 40 percent reported sharing sexual orientation.
I wouldn't call that a problem, unless Facebook users are doing so unknowingly. Last year, Facebook rolled out inline privacy controls to help reduce the confusion.
"We all use Facebook to connect, share, and stay in touch with friends and family, but that doesn't mean we want all of our private information out there for the entire world to see," Abine CEO William Kerrigan said in a statement. "We're starting to see a real shift in Facebook users' behavior. Today, the only thing growing faster than Facebook's user base is the number of its users setting their privacy settings."
See also:
- Here's what Facebook sends the cops in response to a subpoena
- Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook users eventually get over privacy anxiety
- Facebook CTO: most people have modified their privacy settings
- Facebook moves privacy controls inline, simplifies sharing
- Facebook settles with FTC over default privacy settings
- Facebook promises changes following Irish privacy audit
- 70% of Facebook users are comfortable with what they share
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Talkback
Anything on the Internet shouldn't be trusted for that matter
Privacy? What Privacy?
"comfortable with what you share" is not "you haven't tweaked the privacy"
There is no indication that the "comfortable with what you share" survey (which I'm having trouble finding, so I'm only going by what your article says) equates "comfort" with "I never adjusted my privacy settings." Many people are likely comfortable [i]because[/i] they locked down their profile and don't share their personal information.
Indeed, you don't really need to share your personal info with Facebook. You can leave fields such as your phone number and address blank for all they care. You may be comfortable because you never shared your personal info with Facebook to begin with!
Seriously, you need to be a lot more careful not to extrapolate conclusions from data that simply don't come from the data.
Yet they'll trust the friend, of a freind, of a friend they never met
Not me...
Re: 70 percent don't trust Facebook with their personal information
If people are STUPID enough to put personal info on ANY of these idiotic social networking sites...then stop whining about what the consequenses...because they are asking for someone to stalk them, send them viruses, trojans, steal their identity, etc., etc.
Overreact much?
Those I deem "friends" get slightly more information. They get random thoughts and comments. They get my book and beer reviews. And they get GPS maps of the routes I run or bike (after the fact) that concerns me not at all because I don't view my friends as a threat. I've had exactly one person exhibit stalking behavior, but she lived 8,000 miles away with zero chance of making it to this country, so her damage was limited to being a Facebook annoyance (easily remedied by blocking her from my page). Again, no worries about stalkers, viruses, trojans, identity theft, etc. etc.
I have a Facebook account
I have the absolute minimum demographic information entered, i.e. I think my name field is filled in, and relationship to family members, that's it.
I don't use preferences for anything.
I'll like someone else's comments, and use it for a public or semi-private forum for "talking" to various relatives, friends, or acquaintences.
Not that they can't, but if Facebook wants to use my "data"; they're going to have to parse all my messages and figure out their contexts before it's of any use to them.
It's a site whose sole function is to share information.
Interesting story and data
Shaun Dakin here from @PrivacyCamp and #PrivChat. I'm very interested in the delta between what people say and what they actually do.
I've been following the facebook privacy "story" since 2008 and it was extremely interesting to see the outcry regarding facebook privacy (over and over again).
Many people say they care, and then don't do a thing.
There can be several solutions:
- technology (Abine has great stuff, as does ghostery)
- govt regulations (do not track, etc.. )
- consumer education (Priveazy.com etc...)
Best,
Shaun Dakin
Founder @PrivacyCamp
Ditched Facebook long ago....
But do users know what they are sharing on Facebook?
At Priveazy.com, we have lessons about various online security and privacy topics. Of the users that have gone through the Priveazy lesson about Facebook and have done the step-by-step tasks to lock down their Facebook profile, 74% said they were sharing more information than they realized.
This is yet another data point that shows that Facebook is still not doing a good enough job communicating with users about how they are collecting, using, and sharing user's information.
But they STILL post the information ....
Why would I?
You can only educate some people
But "YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID". These people are more stupid than stupid! They want to be in touch/ know thousands of people. So they join Facebook, give out all kinds of information to join. Then they worry about privacy. STUPID!!!!!!
If you don't want someone to know when you last used the restroom, "THEN DON'T PUT IT ON Facebook!" HELLO, Stupid!!!!!!!!!
These people are the same ones who will not lock their front doors and in some cases will actually leave the front door open and then wonder why their house got robbed!!! Hello Stupid! I'm always amazed at how "stupid" people can be and then they want to blame others for "Their Stupidity!"
All in all we can only "try" to educate the dumb ones! You can't fix "stupid", stupid is forever and ever and ever!!!!!!