Before you put anything up on social networking website Facebook, think again: Do you want to whole world to know what you’re up to?
THERE are people out there who, on a daily basis, check out which of their friends are tagged in photos, occasionally write on their walls and (if you can still find the option) poke them when the whim takes their fancy.
If you aren’t one of the 400 million or so members who visit each day, then you must have at least heard of this website. It is ranked second in the world, and has something the number one website (Google) doesn’t: You can play a game on it or tend virtual animals on a virtual farm all day long. Unfortunately, it comes at a price.
Facebook is a “social networking website” that allows users to keep in touch and interact with other members in a variety of ways. It is extremely popular, and most users have no qualms about using it to the hilt.
However, virtual peace was shattered recently when Facebook announced that it was making some changes. What it ended up doing was to put the issue of privacy under a lens and burn itself in the process.
In principle, only those you deem “friends” on your Facebook page can see your personal details. Only they can see your address, your photos, the games you play. The only problem is, that isn’t really true, not if you accept the site’s default settings.
The recent changes now mean that, by default, everybody can see your Facebook information. And by everyone, I mean anybody who has Internet access. So, your boss who thinks you have been spending the last hour drafting a new proposal can now, with a few clicks, find out that you were planting artichokes on your farm instead!
Okay, if you know how/bother to do it, you can adjust some of your privacy settings. But for third-party applications, none of the privacy settings you configure matter. All of your data is open. If you play a game of cards or use an application to give a Christmas card to your friends, then the company which made the application can view your information.
(For a demonstration of this, check the quiz drawn up by the American Civil Liberties Union at tinyurl.com/ycja8ow.)
Does Facebook intend to sell demographic information? In Malaysia, there have been cases of lists of names, together with contact numbers and credit card types, being sold to third parties (see Beware, your data’s on sale, Focus, May 3, The Star; article available at tinyurl.com/ycprewr).
In the United States it’s estimated that it can cost as much as US$100 (RM340) to acquire this sort of information from each person. On Facebook, 400 million people put up such information for free.
Of course, you can avoid all this by just not using Facebook. But you shouldn’t have to back away from technology because other people misuse it. Furthermore, the issue of privacy extends above and beyond that website, and into how banks, insurance companies and department stores handle your data. Do you have any rights?
Well, after nearly a decade, the Personal Data Protection Bill was finally tabled in Parliament for a first reading last month. To put it simply, the Bill limits what people can do with your personal information. You have a right to know what they are collecting it for, and they need your permission to use it for any other purpose, including giving it away to a third party.
You also have the right to check if your personal information is correct, to make changes if anything is wrong and to remove the information whenever you want to. Any company that breaks these rules is guilty of a criminal offence.
I have liberally simplified the situation. If you want to know more, I recommend that you read the Bill itself (available at tinyurl.com/yet2sxg) or do what I did and read Universiti Malaya law professor Abu Bakar Munir’s summary (at tinyurl.com/ykagqu3).
For all its good intentions, the most obvious short-coming of the Bill is that the Federal and State Governments are exempt. It also does not apply to information processed outside Malaysia. I wonder what would happen, for example, if the Government were to sell information to a third party outside the country?
I understand we should trust governments to a certain extent as they are working to protect us, the citizens. But the safeguards need to be put in place as a check and balance. And it wouldn’t hurt if the Government led by example.
At the end of the day, I think the only person you can trust with your personal information is yourself. Know your rights, and what you can do to protect yourself. And stop playing Farmville during office hours.