Privacy Plug-In Fakes out Facebook

The idea of Social Networking is a good one. The problem is that you can't trust the people who run the Social Networks, and since that data is kept in perpetuity and made publicly available, it is ludicrous to use them without surrendering every last vestige of privacy you have left.

However, times are changing and there is a now a tool to take back your Privacy on Social Networks, even from the Social Networks themselves, all without committing FaceBook or MySpace Suicide.

Social networks are rife with examples of users failing to understand the privacy implications of posting sensitive information online.

Now, researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario have developed a browser plug-in to help users keep their information private from prying eyes and from social-network providers as well. Urs Hengartner, an assistant professor of computer science, and his colleagues say the plug-in replaces sensitive information in a user's profile and news feed with meaningless text that can only be unscrambled by trusted friends or contacts. Dubbed FaceCloak, the tool assures its users that sensitive data stays private, Hengartner says. "If you have a particular illness, you might want to allow only your friends to see that," he says. "This leaves it up to the user to decide what information to keep away from Facebook."

Privacy Plug-In Fakes Out Facebook

If you have a FaceBook or MySpace account, such a Privacy Tool is not only long overdue, but greatly appreciated!

Good find, Frat.

Now, if people will just care enough to use it.

Hey i live in that town! a few friends go there. i will probably too. Seems interesting, ill see if maybe i can find the person and interview?

A simpler thing is to not join these sites, and keep ALL your personal life OFF the internet. If you gotta, tho- do it in the barest sense.

Originally posted by wylekat
...If you gotta, tho- do it in the barest sense.

Buck Naked?

Originally posted by wylekat
A simpler thing is to not join these sites, and keep ALL your personal life OFF the internet. If you gotta, tho- do it in the barest sense.

If you are over 40 then it's probably easy to stay off Social Networks to begin with.

If you are under 25 then the only way that you can stay off Social Networks at all is to commit Social Suicide and become Theodore Kaczynski II living in a run-down wooden shack in the remote back-forest of Montana.

If you have any friends or children under 25 then it's almost a given that you have to acquiesce and give-in to Social Networking at some point.

Social Networks aren't a necessity of life, but they are a necessity of a Social Life for most younger generations...like it or not.

Unfortunately, these Social Networks do not take into consideration Privacy, and when they do it is an after-thought and their actions are basically ineffectual. Social Networks are not going to go away...but at least now there is a way that you can live with them while retaining your Privacy.