• Consumers Unions "(CU"), an independent nonprofit organization and publisher of Consumer Reports ("CR"), conducted a survey of 2,089 online households about threats to users' online privacy.

Relevance to Business Activities:     

• use of social networks considerations:
  • survey results:
    • more than 5 million online US households experienced some type of abuse on Facebook in the past year, including:
      • virus infections;
      • identity theft; and
      • bullying, for approximately 1 million children.
    • many active Facebook users take risks that can lead to burglaries, identity theft, and stalking:
      • users who posted their:
        • current location or travel plans - 15%;
        • full birth date - 34%; and
        • children’s names and photos - 21%.
      • one in five have not used Facebook's privacy controls; and
      • 23% did not know some of their "friends" well enough to feel completely comfortable about their own or their family’s security or safety:
        • an additional 6% admitted to having a friend who made them uneasy about those things.
  • facing up to Facebook:
    • underage "friends":
      • of the 20 million minors who actively used Facebook in the past year:
        • 7.5 million were younger than 13 and not supposed to be on the site; and
        • more than 5 million were 10 and under:
          • their accounts were largely unsupervised by their parents.
    • where are Mom and Dad:
      • parents of kids 10 and younger on Facebook seem to be largely unconcerned:
        • only 18% made their child a Facebook friend:
          • which is the best way to monitor a child.
      • 62% of parents with children aged 13 to 14 years old friended their child; and
      • 10% of parents of kids 10 and under had frank talks about appropriate online behavior.
    • privacy watch:
      • according to the executive director of EPIC, Facebook's data collection practices should be regulated for 13-18 year olds who have no protection under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"):
        • parents who object to their teenager using Facebook cannot count on any help from the site:
          • Facebook will not disclose a teenager's account just because a parent requests it.
      • Facebook recently proposed allowing developers of its more than 550,000 apps to request and obtain users' home addresses and phone numbers:
        • according to Senator Al Franken, this practice raises several concerns, including:
          • requiring users to give up extremely sensitive information into to use an app; and
          • increasing the risk of fraud.
    • recommendations:
      • for parents:
        • if a preteenager uses Facebook, delete the account or ask Facebook to by using its "report an underage child" form.
      • for Facebook:
        • Facebook should:
          • beef up its screening to drastically reduce the number of underage members; and
          • make its privacy controls even more accessible:
            • 66% told of adult users do not know either that the controls existed or how to access them.
      • for government:
        • Congress should:
          • raise the age requirement in COPPA to 18 and have it focus more on personal data that is location-based - information that was not foreseen when the act was written:
            • teen privacy protections should be included in the proposed Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act.
  • be social but safe:
    • Facebook has added sites to its Instant Personalization feature, which automatically links users' accounts to user-review sites:
      • users who do not want to share this information should turn Instant Personalization off:
        • the feature is on by default.
    • users should:
      • determine which applications have access to their information and define privacy settings for each applications:
        • e.g. in one test study, a Facebook user who connected his Facebook account to news website's application found that the application had access to his:
          • name;
          • profile picture;
          • gender;
          • networks;
          • user ID;
          • list of friends; and
          • any information shared with others via Facebook.

• security - technical safeguards considerations:
  • survey results:
    • millions of people jeopardize bank information, medical records, and other sensitive data they store on mobile phones:
      • almost 30% of respondents do not take precautions to secure their phones.
    • online threats continue at high levels:
      • one-third of households had experienced a malicious software infection in the previous year:
        • malware cost consumers an estimated $2.3 billion last year and caused them to replace 1.3 million PCs.
  • mobile phones - the new risk:
    • 83% of US adults have a mobile phone:
      • 9% use their phones for banking.
    • malware attacks against smart phones are becoming more visible:
      • e.g. a piece of malware called DroidDream infected about 260,000 Android phones:
        • according to the CEO and founder of a mobile security company, the company was able to detect DroidDream using an anti-malware tool.
  • lock down mobile phones:
    • to protect data on a phone users should:
      • use:
        • security software such as anti-malware programs to provide adequate protection;
        • a password or PIN;
        • free security services offered by smart-phone makers such as:
          • over-the-air backup;
          • remote phone locking; and
          • erasing of data and account information.
      • only download apps from recognized sources; and
      • read review of applications before downloading them:
        • scrutinize the permissions apps request.

Source Document:

http://pressroom.consumerreports.org/pressroom/2011/05/cr-survey-75-million-facebook-users-are-under-the-age-of-13-violating-the-sites-terms-.html