In the News
On social media networks, privacy and exclusivity are relatively hard to come by. In Facebook Groups may soon charge monthly subscription fees for access, Shannon Liao discusses a new Facebook initiative that will allow certain groups to have an access fee. Liao states that this allows group administrators to receive payment for their hard work as well as create new content.
Our Take
What does this mean for your privacy? Well, having to pay to have access to a group may eliminate some of actors who are not be in a group for the right reasons. However, it may also incentivize some actors to lure people into groups for the purposes of raising money, in much the same way that YouTubers comment on others’ videos to attract views.
Recommendations
So how can you protect your personal information on social media sites?
- Only share personal information with a trusted audience
- Consider what information can be inferred about you based on the groups that you are a member of: you may wish to join only those groups you intend to be active in, and mark your group memberships as private
- Be aware of what profile information is visible to other group members by default