Protecting personal data on Facebook
From ordinary users to business owners who are present in the online environment, we have all been informed about the new legislative changes regarding the protection of personal data both on social networks and on websites and online stores.
WHY IS THE PROBLEM OF PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION ARISING?
Recently, information was revealed that an online data analysis firm had illegally used the data of millions of citizens for electoral purposes a few years ago. How was this possible? Well, employees of a company called Cambridge Analytica developed an application through which Facebook users were paid to take certain personality tests, and the data collected was to be used for academic purposes. What the users did not know was that their data and that of their online friends were being collected and used for other purposes.
It is rumored that information was collected specifically on American citizens, thus dividing them into typologies. This allowed those in charge of Donald Trump's election campaign to design personalized messages in the digital environment for each of them, with the aim of influencing the electoral elections.
This was possible because Facebook had not taken too drastic measures to protect personal data. It goes without saying that users' trust in Facebook has decreased, but Mark Zuckerberg assures us that action will be taken against Cambridge Analytica and that certain measures will be taken platform changes which will increase the degree of data security.
One of the measures would be to check all applications and remove those that use user data for illegal purposes. If an application has not been used for more than 3 months, the data collected by it will no longer be usable. Another change refers to the fact that users of an application will give their permission for their data to be used when the respective application is running. In order for everything to be transparent, it will be much easier to see which applications we are connected to through Facebook and what information we allow to be shared within them.
Facebook has already begun implementing measures to protect personal data, and using the platform will soon become increasingly secure.
Although Mark Zuckerberg and his team are constantly making improvements and working hard to protect user information, you may still have some reservations and fears. So, to use Facebook safely, we recommend a few things. Account and personal data security measures:
Change your privacy settings so that only friends can see your posts;
Constantly monitor the photos you are tagged in - if you notice a photo where you are tagged against you, don't hesitate to remove the tag or ask the person who posted it to remove it;
Do not make public information such as your phone number, email address, or home address;
Don't use a password that is too simple or trivial; try to include at least one capital letter, 2 numbers, and a symbol;
Make your profile private and only accept friend requests from people you know;
Be careful what applications you access from Facebook - some may transmit personal data to advertising companies;
Don't share your location, let alone check in from home; you don't want anyone to know where you live or when you're home or not.
Another novelty for this This year is related to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), a regulation for data protection and transparency, which will enter into force on May 25, 2018 in all EU countries.
Online businesses will have to be careful about how they collect information about users. As a novelty, personal data will be defined as data that can directly or indirectly identify a person: name, location data, etc. Thus, in order for certain data to be collected from them, users will have to give their consent as an affirmative and informed action and not implicitly as is currently the case.
At the moment, quite a few companies have the capacity to comply with the GDPR requirements. What is certain is that those who do not will be liable to fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of turnover.
If you own an online business, we recommend that you inform yourself about this topic and conduct a data audit within the company so that the information collected is in accordance with this new regulation.
What measures have you taken to protect personal data or to protect those of your website users?
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