Some things should not be shared.

⇒ Information Security, Social Media

Posted on: 29 Aug 2011

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Research data from 2 million Facebook users ⁽¹⁾ shows some are more likely to pass on your personal data than others.

Less than a week from the launch of Google’s social networking site, Google+, it was discovered that there was nothing to stop a friend “re-sharing” your posts with the whole online world! Google has since corrected this issue and users can now disable re-sharing. Software snags aside, it raises the question: which friends do you trust with your personal information?

The research yielded some interesting statistics, top of the list:

• Almost 82% of users share their gender
• 66% share their likes and dislikes
• 45% share their musical tastes
• Around a third share their home town and favourite TV shows

Bottom of the list:

• Less than 2% share their religious and political views, or email address
• Less than 0.4% share their home address or mobile phone number

Theory goes that someone who is willing to share their home address or phone number is not especially privacy-conscious. It could be inferred that if they have no concern in sharing their own private details they would have no concern in sharing yours.

So check out your friends. Which are sharing their personal information to all and sundry? Ditching them – or at least blocking them from re-sharing your posts – could go a long way to protecting your personal information and preventing identity theft.

Sources:

 (1) Arizona State University (Pritam Gundecha)

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