I hate being a Party-Pooper. But here is a question I've been struggling with for the past few weeks. Is Facebook a fun and useful tool, or is it a public microscope into your private information? Today, I believe it can be both. But there are a few things you need to know.

The more I use it, the more value I see in how Facebook connects people and enriches our lives. I see growing number of people using Facebook for personal networking. But as with any new technology that brings rapid change to the world, our desire and ability to manage the risks lags way behind. In the past, we had time to debate these risks; but no more.

In today's world, information is indeed power. But more importantly, information travels so fast that your banking password could be half way round the world before you can hit the Back Button on your browser. We really don't have time for debate any more. So, you need to take some precautions to avoid becoming a victim when you use Facebook.

I have spent hours recently thinking about, and discussing, the risks of tools like Facebook to our privacy. But in this short article, here's what I think you really need to know.

1 - Don't accept friend requests from people you can't verify

Anybody can put a picture of somebody else in their profile. It's easy to understand why immature people might impersonate George W. Bush or a celebrity like Brittany Spears. But it's actually very common for criminals to try to steal identity information by posing as a regular Joe, and inviting people he might know to be his friend. Once you are included as somebody's friend, you can learn a lot about them, including birth dates, high school names, etc. This information starts to form the basis for identity theft. In case you weren't aware, birth dates are often used for loan applications or other types of accounts.

Stealing challenge questions used to reset passwords is a popular way of breaking into people's email and banking online accounts. Sometimes the information available to your Facebook friends might prove useful to an identity thief trying to gather private information for identity theft. So, try to verify who is actually asking you to be their friend, and don't accept friend invitations if you aren't sure it's really them.

2 - Set all your privacy options to "My Friends Only"

What's scary is that almost all of the profile information you enter when you create a Facebook account is automatically public. Everything from your favourite books and movies to your education and work history is virtually open to the world as soon as you enter it. But Facebook doesn't advertise this because it would diminish the value of the service. The more you have made public, the more the site is worth as a business entity.

Now, do you remember Sarah Palin's email hack in 2008? The hacker found virtually all the information he needed to answer Yahoo's challenge questions from Wikipedia. But there is a way to control this information more tightly in Facebook if you want to. You can adjust your profile's privacy settings. So,it's a good idea to set virtually every option to be accessible to "Only My Friends"

3 - Don't use wacky Facebook applications like "Throw a snowball" or "Secret crush" if you can't check who published them

These little applications - and there are hundreds of them - seem harmless enough. But did you know that a Facebook application can unintentionally access the profile information of all your friends if it's not written in a responsible way? They can also take you to a dangerous website that tries to download harmful programs to your computer.

What happens is that criminals use real applications, or write their own cute new applications that appear to do one thing, but when you activate them, they can grab all your friends' information and send it back to somebody else. Once again, this can be used to perform identity theft.

So, you can see why I - as an information security professional - have a lot of concerns about Facebook and privacy. But I realize it isn't going away any time soon; mainly because of the incredible value it brings to most people. Heck, I find it a lot of fun to connect with some of my old high school classmates whom I haven't seen in years. But what bothers me is that there will continue to be random innocent victims who will get hurt if they aren't made aware of these simple risks and how to avoid them. Someday that random victim could be you or one of your friends.

While Facebook is a fun and useful tool, it CAN be a public microscope into your private information. Please use these tips to put in place the basic protection you need that can reduce your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.

I don't mean to be the Facebook Party-Pooper. But now that the initial groundswell of support for Facebook is well under way, let's start our own wave of awareness about how to manage its risks to and how to protect our private information.

I now have a free podcast episode and a link on my website to Tom Eston's short, but very detailed guide and helpful guide to Facebook privacy and security.

You can find these at: http://www.streetwise-security-zone.com/podcast.html.

If you join The Streetwise Security Zone community, you can invite me to be your friend on Facebook, and you'll hear about other tips for protecting your private information.

Scott Wright

- The Streetwise Security Coach

NOTE: Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_N._Wright