Facebook and Google are currently under scrutiny for privacy issues, but for different reasons.

Recent changes to Facebook's privacy settings mean your information is possibly being broadcast further than you thought. And Google has discovered it was collecting unprotected WiFi information when it was creating Google Street View.

Facebook

Since it started Facebook has made a number of changes to its privacy policy.

In 2005 the amount of information viewable by default to the "outside world" was minimal, in fact you couldn't access Facebook without a login. And it was a long time before Facebook profiles were viewable via a search engine like Google.

With the new policy released in 2010, by default everything on your Facebook account, with the exception of your contact information and birthday, is viewable to the entire internet.

You are able to change the privacy settings on your profile to limit the information being shared. However, a recent New York Times article pointed out that Facebook has 50 settings with over 170 options just for privacy settings, so it's not a simple task.

Going through the settings you will find that by default, if your friends use a third party application or even a website that uses Facebook's new Open Graph API – a new software platform that lets Facebook connect your profile to other sites you use – then they will be sharing a lot of your information too. And vice versa, you are sharing all of your friends' information. See the list of what information you are sharing below:

 

This image is taken from the Privacy Settings page inside a Facebook account. If you want to, you can deselect all of this information from being shared on your account, and on the other privacy pages you can customise what information is viewable and by whom (for example, my own profile has no information shared with anyone other than friends).

Facebook shows no signs of changing this current set-up. A recent security update has made it harder for your account to be hijacked but still doesn't resolve the issue of being able to easily control who can see your own information.

If you are concerned about your privacy settings in Facebook, I recommend this post on how to "lock down" your profile so only your friends can see your information.

Google

It has emerged that when Google's street-mapping cars were sent out, some of them contained software with a piece of code in it that gathered information being sent over unprotected WiFi networks (given the name "payload").

This information wasn't used by Google and was only noticed when an audit of all the data was requested by the German Data Protection Authority (DPA). Google claims it only wanted to gather SSIDs (wireless network names) and MAC addresses. Google is in the process of securely destroying the data it collected, and reiterated that because the mapping cars were moving the amount of data from each network was minimal.

While this isn't a great look for Google, it is a good reminder that if you are using a WiFi network at home and it isn't password protected, others may be able to view your information. In some circumstances an open WiFi network can be beneficial, such as for sharing network resources with neighbours or for businesses offering internet access to customers. However, home networks should usually be password protected. For more on how to do this, see our home networking guide.

Coming soon! We'll be reviewing some of the social media sites available, including Facebook and Google Buzz.

Do you know how to protect your privacy settings on your social networking page? Take our poll!

Hadyn Green - Technical Writer

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