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Headsup, parents! New privacy change at FB

January 18, 2011 By Anne 2 Comments

Parents, the best advice for Facebook users at your house is, “Leave the contact info in your profile blank.” That’s the quick, easy end run around the new change, which allows apps to use your address and phone numbers if you give them permission to do so. That’s the good news: It’s opt-in – you choose to provide the apps with that info. The problem is, once FB users decide to install an app, they usually click “Allow” pretty automatically. So the long-term advice for young Facebook users is to think about every click they make – don’t mindlessly give others control over your data. This is a great media-literacy training opp (as well as an important child online-safety measure).

Here’s all you need to do to leave those boxes blank: After you log in, click on “Home” (upper right corner), then “Edit My Profile” under your name in the upper left corner. Then, under “Basic Information” in the left-hand column, click on “Contact Information.” On that screen, just leave phone numbers and address blank (for illustrations, see my ConnectSafely co-director Larry Magid’s piece in CNET). Most apps wouldn’t abuse users’ information but, according to Time’s Techland, “users run the greater risk of having information farmed by malicious rogue apps. Scams are carefully monitored by the Facebook team, but can usually exist for at least a few days before they’re shut down, meaning that cybercriminals will have time to trick users into downloading the faux app and gaining access to even more personal info that could be used against them.” This isn’t just a Web issue, though. It’s also a sign of the times and the ubiquity of apps – iPhone users, too, have to be careful about apps’ use of their data. ArsTechnica.com explains.

This just in!: Within an hour of my posting the above, Facebook announced it was putting a hold on this change. Please see my update for details.

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Filed Under: Literacy & Citizenship Tagged With: apps, consumer privacy, data security, Facebook, iPhone, media literacy, online safety, Privacy, third-party applications

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  1. Update: FB holds off on that last privacy change | NetFamilyNews.org says:
    January 18, 2011 at 11:50 pm

    […] leave their address and phone numbers blank in the Contact Information part of their profile. See my last post for instructions on how to do that. Here, too, are details from my ConnectSafely co-director Larry […]

    Reply
  2. Tweets that mention Headsup, parents! New privacy change at FB | NetFamilyNews.org -- Topsy.com says:
    January 18, 2011 at 5:19 am

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by annecollier and Tim Woda. Tim Woda said: Headsup, parents! New privacy change at FB: Parents, the best advice for Facebook users at your house is, “Leave… http://bit.ly/egODpy […]

    Reply

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Our (DIGITAL) PARENTING BASICS: Safety + Social
NAMLE, the National Association for Media Literacy Education
CASEL.org & the 5 core social-emotional competencies of SEL
Center for Democracy & Technology
Center for Innovative Public Health Research
Childnet International
Committee for Children
Congressional Internet Caucus Academy
ConnectSafely.org
Control Shift: a pivotal book for Internet safety
Crimes Against Children Research Center
Crisis Textline
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative's Revenge Porn Crisis Line
Cyberwise.org
danah boyd's blog and book about networked youth
Disconnected, Carrie James's book on digital ethics
FOSI.org's Good Digital Parenting
The research of Global Kids Online
The Good Project at Harvard's School of Education
If you watch nothing else: "Parenting in a Digital Age" TED Talk by Prof. Sonia Livingstone
The International Bullying Prevention Association
Let Grow Foundation
Making Caring Common
Raising Digital Natives, author Devorah Heitner's site
Renee Hobbs at the Media Education Lab
MediaSmarts.ca
The New Media Literacies
Report of the Aspen Task Force on Learning & the Internet and our guide to Creating Trusted Learning Environments
The Ruler Approach to social-emotional learning (Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence)
Sources of Strength
"Young & Online: Perspectives on life in a digital age" from young people in 26 countries (via UNICEF)
"Youth Safety on a Living Internet": 2010 report of the Online Safety & Technology Working Group (and my post about it)

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