The Homeland Security Newswire reported a Cambridge University Study that highlights significant privacy shortcomings with social networking sites.
The study couldn't come at a better time. The recent hack of Twitter's company and employee information from Google's cloud platform was largely engineered by gathering personal data on employees from social networking sites.
Social networking by its very nature is at odds with privacy. The study indicates a practice of reducing privacy awareness among members. Obvious precautions, such as limiting access to your profile, are commercially uncompetitive and so those actions are not the default setting. Requiring significant privacy-related actions by users (or hassle) is also not in their best interests. And the study found that sites emphasizing privacy had the lowest privacy score according to their 260 point rating system. Most sites make private information available to third parties.
It won't take long for compliance officers to take note of this trend. Having a Facebook account or actively using Twitter could become career limiting. It already is if you or your friends post risque pictures or tales of adventure for public consumption. Recruiters look for this when screening candidates.
So whether you are on LinkedIn, MySpace or Facebook, pay attention to your profile and access to personal information.
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