Think twice before you ‘like’ this article

U of W to offer seminars on understanding Facebook privacy

Lee Repko thinks Facebook users should be aware of what they are getting into when they sign up for the site. Cindy Titus

New features such as the “like” option are popping up on the social networking website, Facebook and are being used immediately by millions of users. But who exactly are users telling what they like? If they think it’s just their “friends,” they’re mistaken.

In mid-August, the University of Winnipeg’s Division of Continuing Education (DCE) will offer a seminar on understanding Facebook’s privacy settings.
Titled “Facebook and Privacy: What You Should Know,” the three-hour seminar will be offered a few times during the month.

Lee Repko, a graduate of the Internet Systems Specialist diploma program from the DCE, will run the seminar.

“This is a daily issue for people,” Repko said. “Facebook has 200 million users. That’s four per cent of the population. I’ll show you what (Facebook is) doing and how they’re manipulating things.”

Understanding Facebook’s privacy settings is important because a user may not know that their activity on Facebook can be used for market research and directing personalized ads, or even that the content they post can be visible to the entire world through a Google search.

“Facebook is about sharing, so the default setting is to have everything open,” Repko said.

These default settings have caused some concern in the Internet community, and is the reason why some people, like Winnipeg Free Press city hall reporter Bartley Kives, have deleted their accounts altogether.

Facebook wants it to be easy to connect with your friends, which is inherently good, but a lot of the technical discussion is over the average user’s head.

Gordon Lanois, web developer

“Facebook simply did not allow me to control privacy settings to my satisfaction,” Kives wrote in a message via Twitter. “At first, I was invisible to everyone except my ‘friends,’ but in late 2009, they changed the settings - without warning - and I could suddenly be seen by anyone.”

After experimenting with a fully public profile, which resulted in Kives being cyber-stalked, he decided to nix his Facebook presence altogether.
“I have not looked back,” Kives wrote. “I barely used Facebook for work, anyway. Twitter is far more useful for my purposes.”

Not everyone should be uncomfortable with Facebook’s settings, Repko said, but everyone should at least be aware of them.

The average user can be affected by these settings in ways they may not be aware of. Gordon Lanois, a web developer who helped create the seminar, points to the fact that the content you post on Facebook can be used against you legally.

His friend, a divorce lawyer, checks Facebook to see if the people he’s working against in court have engaged in online flirtations that could be damaging to their case.

“You can go to an old flame and say, ‘Hey, I remember you at 19, and she can reply, ‘Well I’m 39 now and I’m just as good,’” Lanois said, giving an example. “And you wrote it yourself (on Facebook). It’s not hearsay; it’s an admission of guilt.”

Lanois thinks the seminar is important.

“Facebook wants it to be easy to connect with your friends, which is inherently good, but a lot of the technical discussion is over the average user’s head,” he said.

Repko agrees, and points out the finality of Facebook that some people are unaware of.

“The user has the right to expose themselves as much as possible,” he said. “But it’s still almost impossible to delete (content).

“Once it’s out there, it’s out there.”

The “Facebook and Privacy: What You Should Know” seminars will begin mid-August. Cost is $49.

Visit http://www.tinyurl.com/FacebookDCE for more information.

Published in Volume 64, Number 27 of The Uniter (June 30, 2010)

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