Is Facebook a safe read?

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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The London Times reported that Facebook users were left contemplating the security of private details stored on the social networking site after part of its source code was leaked to the Internet.

The site acknowledged that a section of its code has been copied and published on a blog, but stressed that none of the personal details of its 28 million users had been compromised.

At the weekend, a blog called Facebook Secrets published details of part of Facebook’s source code, the set of commands which determines the way the site appears when it is viewed by users.

Dominic White, a local senior consultant for security and privacy services at Deloitte, said a site like Facebook taht contains a lot of personal information — such as birth dates, employment and contact details — could lead to others impersonating you.

White said: “An example is if you’ve lost your bank card and you are asked for verification details, such as your address and identity number — a lot of these details you are putting on the Internet increase the likelihood of someone pretending to be you.”

He added that social networking users are exposing themselves to stalkers and identity thieves.

White said: “With the rapid deployment of these sites, a lot of the applications that people add in Facebook, that are user created, have most probably not gone through security testing.

He said people can take advantage of the vulnerability of web browsers and websites and can send text messages from your account.

An article in the UK this week told how the willingness of people to give their personal details on Internet networking sites gave cyber criminals the information they needed to create spoof identities, gain access to online accounts or infiltrate their employers’ computer networks.

Media lawyer Paul Jacobson said Facebook users agree to terms and conditions, leaving locals without much legal recourse .

Jacobson said: “This also applies to MySpace or Gmail. Basically when you sign up, you are consenting to the jurisdiction of a particular court or state in the US.

“So what this means is that if you ever want to sue Facebook, no matter how strong your case is, you have to do it on US soil, in an unfamiliar justice system and courts.”

He added: “Not forgetting the costs of a legal team, if they intend to fight you, they want to do it in their back yard.”

He said Facebook also does not have a corporate presence in South Africa a nd any judgments made in our courts will be ineffective.

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