Patterns Of Communication Can Weaken Privacy In Social Networks

Computer scientists and experts believe that profiles on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can potentially be used by identity thieves to find sensitive information about their users, including their Social Security numbers. Researchers at several universities have deduced that by using publicly available data and complex data mining, researchers could identify personal information about users of social networks, to a great degree of accuracy.

New York Times reports:

In social networks, people can increase their defenses against identification by adopting tight privacy controls on information in personal profiles. Yet an individual’s actions, researchers say, are rarely enough to protect privacy in the interconnected world of the Internet.

You may not disclose personal information, but your online friends and colleagues may do it for you, referring to your school or employer, gender, location and interests. Patterns of social communication, researchers say, are revealing.

This has worried the FTC which is holding a series of workshops on this issue and planning for stringent industry requirements such as creating a Do Not Track list.

New York Times: “How Privacy Vanishes Online”

Image by Luc Legay