Clinic Researcher Recommends Privacy-Strenthening Tips

January  30,  2008 

Clinic researcher Jennifer King recommended some tools for consumers to strengthen their privacy settings online in a Wall Street Journal article “It’s Hard to Hide From Your ‘Friends.’” The article discusses how several online services, such as Facebook and Google, have allowed anyone to access personal information about people they know. Whereas the concern used to be about companies sharing personal information with other companies, the debate is now centering on whether consumers want their information shared with their friends without their consent. Companies like Fandango Inc. and Overstock.com Inc. have agreed to inform Facebook whenever its users purchase anything from their websites. Websites are now making it more accessible for their users to change their settings.

Jennifer King, a privacy researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, suggests several privacy-strengthening steps for people who use services like email, photo-sharing and social-networking sites that allow users to create lists of “friends.” Ms. King recommends adding someone to your list of “friends” only if you really know them. She also advises considering how sharing a message, photo or personal detail online could later embarrass or harm you.
“Pretend you’re sharing it with everyone at a party — and that they’re all holding video cameras,” Ms. King says.

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