Results tagged “email” from Birmingham Mail - Technobabble

I see Facebook is in the news, once again for changing user terms and conditions to allow more of their personal information to be available to any Tom, Dick or Harry.

Developers are being given access to users' email addresses when people sign up for applications.

According to the social networking giant, the goal is to create a more 'open' Facebook and let developers feel their users/customers are actually their own, rather than just Facebook's.

Hum.

And people won't be able to tick a box to stop this information being given out.

Now I've blogged in the past about the information allows application developers access to, but this seems to be a step too far.

When you install or allow an application, now the developer will be given your email, and your first and last names.

Now a key security measure of sites such as ebay is that they use your real name in emails (rather than your username), so you know it's come from them.

It doesn't seem beyond the realms of possibility that fraudsters could through applications gain this information, and then use it to make people hand over their passwords etc, so being able to hijack accounts.

People must at some point question how much information they want to be freely available, and at the very least set up email accounts purely for applications such as Facebook.

Looming rules that will force internet companies to keep details of every email sent in the UK are an attack on privacy and a waste of money, it was warned today.

From March, all internet service providers (ISP) will have to keep data about emails sent and received in the UK for a year.

Content of individual emails is not being kept by the authorities, but the timing and number of each communication are.

The law is being implemented as part an EC directive, and the Government will reportedly have to pay the ISPs more than £25 million to ensure the law is obeyed.