As Facebook grew bigger and bigger, so did the issues surrounding it. Perhaps one of the biggest issues that the giant social network has always faced is just how secure it is. Left and right, we continue to hear about privacy issues, and how users have a lot to fear in this regard.
Recently, however, founder Mark Zuckerberg gleefully announced a host of new features that they are rolling out – features that are supposed to ensure the privacy of Facebook users. One would think that this just might put an end to all the concerns – NOT.
Even more recently, news about several popular Facebook applications giving away private information to advertisers. Zynga, the group behind the ubiquitous FarmVille and Mafia Wars, and LOLapps are among the platform developers that have been earmarked for the privacy breach. The official statement is that the leaking of private information was due to “technical details,” and that everything was accidental. Did we really expect them to say otherwise?
To give credit to Facebook, they admitted the breach, and say that they are taking steps to address similar issues coming up. Then again, isn’t this what press releases are for? Are the guys at Facebook really taking serious steps to solve security issues? Will the new features actually make access more secure for the average user?
Here are some of the new features that are supposed to make this so:
- Ability to remotely log out of Facebook: “Under the Account Security section of your Account Settings page you’ll see all of your active sessions, along with information about each session. In the unlikely event that someone accesses your account without your permission, you can also shut down the unauthorized login before resetting your password and taking other steps to secure your account and computer.”
- Temporary passwords: These are to be used when accessing Facebook in unsecure locations. “Simply text “otp” to 32665 on your mobile phone (U.S. only), and you’ll immediately receive a password that can be used only once and expires in 20 minutes. In order to access this feature, you’ll need a mobile phone number in your account.”
Check out Jake Brill’s blog post for more details.
As for the effectiveness of these features, we will just have to see in the coming weeks and months. Personally, I haven’t had the chance to use them!
Photo via pcworld.com.ph
Originally posted on October 20, 2010 @ 12:34 am