This is an ongoing debate and one I keep reading about in my research related to using social network sites for business. Having read this article on the BBC Web site I have finally got around to looking at my facebook profile and seeing what can really be accessed by people/applications other than those I have chosen to connect to. What a surprise I had!!!

Here are some of the things I found within a few minutes;
1. Yes, applications can access a lot of data about you. I did find applications that had been authorised that I had never installed. Facebook can hide behind various comments, but the bottom line is that their platform allows uncontrolled 3rd party developers to add applications that can harvest data from unsuspecting Facebook members.
2. I can browse my friends list and click on ’see friends’ and see a limited profile of ALL their contacts. I can then repeat this with their contacts (view friends) - even if I am not ‘friends’ with that person. If you manage to find a real celebrity profile through the search facility you can view their friends - a very interesting exercise, but is there not a breach of trust taking place?
3. It is possible for external Web sites to post stories to my news feed.
4. If a friend of mine comments on someone’s photo and this appears in my news feed, I can view the photo even if I am not conencted to the owner of the photo. I can then use the forward and back buttons to browse the entire album.
5. By default, Facebook submits a public search listing of your profile to be indexed by search engines. Not only do they not fully protect your data they share it with the likes of Google, Yahoo, etc.

Given the sharp increase in identity theft and increasing concern about data privacy, it seems incredible that;
A) Facebook allow such easy access to private data - even data of individuals that just happen to be friends of someone that has installed the ‘wrong’ application.
B) Facebook memebrs are so careless with their data. I know of people that put a lot of private data in their profile and more than enough for someone criminally minded to fake their identity.

My message: be careful with your data. I have put together a very quick guide to protecting your privacy against Facebook applications and gives a few pointers about other steps you can take to improve privacy.
Restrict data accessible to Facebook applications

To tie this back with this week’s discussion, how does this affect businesses trying to use Facebook to reach new clients? How far should you go in trying to reach them and to gather information about them? When does market research become an invasion of privacy? When does making contact become spam? If Facebook tightens its controls to protect privacy will this impact the business use of the site?