Facebook Privacy:
By now, you probably know that it’s important to put your social media accounts on private mode to protect your personal information and photos. For instance, when a friend tags you in a photo on Facebook, you might not even think twice about who else can see that photo. However, you’re the only one who’s tagged in it, so no one else will see it, right? WRONG! Facebook has a feature that allows tagged photos of you to be shown to the public even if you're on private mode.
Recently, an ongoing lawsuit has brought light to this issue. A resident of Chicago filed a lawsuit in 2015 for Facebook using his data without his permission to build a facial recognition technology system and create digital face prints. According to this article by Jared Bennet, this act violates “Illinois law that prohibits collection of biometric data without permission.” The lawsuit is still going on today. Facebook is fighting back because “no federal law regulates how companies use biometric privacy or facial recognition.” RED FLAG! Additionally, what if this facial recognition becomes even more advanced…that would mean names and faces could be matched incredibly easily—you could even be identified by your posture or clothing. There needs to be a law regulating this kind of activity. Don’t we all deserve privacy?! Or at least the right to permission before the likes of Facebook invade every aspect of our privacy? Though facial recognition has not been perfected yet, it will be soon.
In the meantime, it is important to be aware of other ways to protect your privacy. Taking photos and posting them online is fun and definitely not something you have to give up. You could un-tag yourself from every photo or you can follow these easy steps to stop public users from seeing every photo you’re tagged in: To update your Facebook Privacy preferences:
- Click downward arrow in the upper right corner
- Go to “Privacy” on the left column
- Edit each setting to “Friends” or “Only Me” so only people you’re friends with can access your private information—or just yourself!
To update your tagging preferences:
- Click downward arrow in the upper right corner
- Go to “Timeline and Tagging” on the left column
- Edit each setting to “Friends” so only people you’re friends with can tag you and see posts on your timeline
There are SO many Facebook privacy issues- so we put together the Ultimate Guide. We're going to cover Tip each day next week! Let’s make your private life, stay private ☺
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