The New Social Rules- Authentication is Essential

The New Social Rules - 24th November 2010

November has been non stop with Facebook launching a new service, offering email to its user base and opening more data about ourselves to a large organisation, what does this mean to The New Social Rules now?

I am looking forward to some interesting debate tomorrow with 100 people registered social media speakers from PayPal, ex Managing Director of MSN UK, Ketchum Pleon, Twitjobs and an angel investor the panel will be sharing their insights. The new rules of communication are constantly changing, social media impacts our outlook, the decisions we make now ,our future career, children and financial well being.

I urge you to take a few minute to crash through these slides on the new digital age, Tony Fish as ever has his finger on the pulse and is spot on:

'Reputation is all you have and your name is a good identity so don't abuse or loose either'

'Your digital footprint is worth more than your salary'

'Your password is the weakest point in your armour'

I will tomorrow be flying the flag for the need for communities, businesses and organisations to authenticate their users to protect not only the users but themselves.


'Don't sack the person who has the corporate login for your facebook fanpage, group, twitter accounts, linkedin profiles, until other people have access and admin rights- or you will be held hostage'

New rules for living in a digital age

View more presentations from Tony Fish.

Facebook a month of security breaches

Its been a bad month for Facebook and I hope this is a sharp nudge l for those who make decisions regarding our security and privacy. Facebook should first commit to a full audit of its systems to make sure it complies with its own policies, and then spend some time listening to its customers' feedback.

To date, Facebook insists it has not intentionally released this information and has made changes to prevent this data leakage. Social networks are entrusted with people's personal data this should requires an embedded sense of responsibility.

As with PleaseRobMe.com, it is easy for people to determine from your IP address that you are trapped away from home in a European ash cloud, or that you are lying about your activities and location. Using online services and social media for communications carries with it the same risks as sending emails, in my opinion a great deal more.

Hopefully Facebook is listening to all of the commentary related to their users' concerns over privacy, and will make changes to their system. They are clearly aware that including the IP is a bad idea, considering their move to begin hiding it, albeit trivially.

So this weekend when you upload your photos or share an event, check your privacy settings and don't go into too much detail as you don't know who will be reading or looking at your items.

Fairly scary stuff.

http://www.sophos.com/blogs/chetw/g/2010/05/08/facebook-notifications-leak-ip-addresses/