Recently there has been a lot of chatter about how the social network Facebook is displaying all of your contacts.
The Post floating around…
“THE PHONE NUMBERS IN YOUR PHONE are now on Facebook! Click on ACCOUNT, click on EDIT FRIENDS, left side of screen and click CONTACTS. You will see all phone numbers (FB friends or not) are published that you have stored in your mobile phone. TO REMOVE, go to Right column, click on "this page," then click "remove" Please repost this on your status, so your friends can remove their #'s and thus prevent abuse if they don't want them published!”
In response, Facebook posted this
“Rumors claiming that your phone contacts are visible to everyone on Facebook are false. Our Contacts list, formerly called Phonebook, has existed for a long time. The phone numbers listed there were either added by your friends themselves and made visible to you, or you have previously synced your phone contacts with Facebook. Just like on your phone, only you can see these numbers.”
I hate to tell you but Facebook is correct. This feature has been there for quite some time. I’ve been on Facebook for about 2 years now and it was there when I started. It’s an automatic feature and you as the user must disable it.
Now I can understand why everyone is getting upset, your mobile phone number is a personal thing. You like to consider it “private" information” just like what you enter on social networks like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, ect.
Social networks are just that, social. If you look up the word social in the dictionary you see,
“pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.” (taken from dictionary.com)
it’s you and all of your family, friends or peers gathered in one location. Facebook is the biggest one and has done wonders for people reconnecting with one another. The idea behind Facebook is just that, make a place that’s easy for you to connect with everyone and maybe make some new connections. Since it’s a “social” environment, this would include various ways to contact each other, email, through Facebook itself, by postal mail or phone.
How all this came to fruition is smart phones. We love them and we hate them and in some case they are smarter than their owners and in this case they are. If you have a smart phone like an Android, iPhone, Windows 7 phone and you connect to Facebook or any other social network on your phone through an app, it will ask you if you want to import your contacts. Most people just click ok all the way through so they can get started using it. This is where the “security breach” happens. The user fails to stop and think about what they are doing or about to do and just wants to get to their shiny new toy.
This is where you the user of these services need to really focus and pay attention. By default, Facebook and most other social sites leave certain options open to help with integration and networking which includes importing your contact information.
What the people posting this are not fully aware of and just being sheep and following the paranoia is that those numbers are only visible to you, not anyone else. Try it, go to any of your friends sites and try to find their list of numbers, you won’t be able to. These numbers are for your eyes only. You can still remove them if you wish.
The biggest thing to take away from this is that you and you alone are responsible for your own safety and security. Do not rely on someone else to do it for you, if you do then you will fail. Take the time to read the information presented to you. Take the time and go through security settings BEFORE you allow any integrations, take the time to understand how something works. You’ll have plenty of time to play with your new shiny toy and after taking the time to properly set it up and protect what you want to protect, it will be a very enjoyable experience.
