Facebook: Is it time to panic about security?

Facebook has hit the news once again with yet another security breach. This time, the breach was a flaw in the View as... feature built into the platform to give users the ability to see their profiles and pages as another user would see them. It had to do with some combination of settings between this feature and the uploading of videos that gave some hacker access to over 50 million people's data.

News of the breach is EVERYWHERE! There is even a public statement about it on the Facebook site.

To be honest, I'm not surprised this has happened. As much as people like to pretend otherwise, the internet and social media are still new technology. Yes, sites like Facebook have been around for a while, going public in 2004. However, what Facebook looked like in 2004 is NOTHING compared to what it looks like today. Social media as a whole is dramatically different. Same too with the internet.

More and more people are joining the world of the internet. For much of the Western Society, it has become a massive part of our lives. My children are now required to sit certain school exams or submit assignments online. This is the world we now live in.

With the changes in the world, we were bound to face issues surrounding privacy and security. The question is: is it time to panic?

In a one-word answer: No. In a longer answer: No, but it is time to examine our practices and take steps to protect ourselves.

Here is a list of steps you should take to protect yourself on the internet, not just Facebook.

The Must-Have Website

When I first started down the road towards publication myself, I did an extensive amount of research trying to understand exactly what I needed to do to make it happen. There was this one thing that kept cropping up, time and time again. Platform. Website. Website. Platform.

When I saw this constant theme of website for writers, I wanted to run screaming. There was no way I wanted to stress myself with having to do all the coding associated with having a website. And the cost... I could barely afford my internet bill. But if I wanted to make a name for myself as a writer, I was going to have to suck it up and just do it.

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple — and cheap — it all was.

I created the first iteration of my author website, with all the bells and whistles, within 30 minutes. I kid you not. And all it cost me was time. That website was FREE.

To Review or Not To Review?

The topic of reviews has come across my feeds a lot over the past few weeks, and I find myself feeling like a broken record, giving the same advice over and over.

First, there was a discussion on Facebook where a writer taking part in a book review cooperative felt bound by the rules of the cooperative: if you can’t leave a 3-star review or higher, then you’re out of the cooperative. Let’s ignore that this is unethical and deliberately misleading. If you feel a book is only worth 1 star, then you should feel comfortable giving that book 1 star. (Not that I would, but I will come to that later.)

Then, I encountered a fellow editor who was suffering a review dilemma, where she felt that a book in question possessed glaring editorial flaws, yet she knew others who adored the book. To complicate matters, she knew the author personally. She was asking a group of editors how she should handle the book review, worried about the negative impact on her editorial business if she promoted a book that was poorly edited.

This was closely followed by discussions about Amazon’s glitch in their reviews system that was impacting ALL products on their sites: non-verified reviews were being restricted.

I’ve heard others recount their own experiences regarding reviews, and discuss tactics for Advance Reader Copies (ARCs). Meanwhile, the same advice keeps pouring out of my fingers and onto the feeds.

NEVER review a book on Amazon, Goodreads or similar sites. Instead, recommend.

Let me explain why.

Privacy is World-Wide: The Impact of GDPR

If I was say “GDPR is here,” would you know what I was talking about? Be honest. There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you don’t.

Now for the next question: if you have heard of the GDPR, have you bothered to take the steps necessary to protect yourself? Or are you one of those who believes that because you don’t live in the EU that it doesn’t concern you? Again, be honest. It’s perfectly okay to think that.

However, believe it or not, if you are a public figure of any kind (e.g., writer, podcaster, musician, artist), then the GDPR could have huge consequences if you don’t take the steps now to protect yourself. Because of the way the internet works, there is a whole level of complexity added to the privacy of information issue that most people don’t realize or understand.

It’s time to get the picture straight.

Facebook Settings that Your Phone Forgot to Tell You About

Note to reader: This blog post was originally written in 2018. Some settings have moved and changed names. I have done what I can to update this post with the interfaces that were present in November 2022, but some things might not be entirely accurate anymore.

Facebook seems to be on a security breach, hole plug mode, with new updates and new features that are constantly coming online. (And some settings are disappearing.) I am updating this post as I discover more settings. If you desire, you can just skip to the updates and the new settings that I've found.

Unless you have been hiding in a hole somewhere, and NOT on Facebook, then you will know about the blowup that is going on about how the Facebook app seems to be accessing information from outside its app — in particular contact details. It's not surprising that people are all up in arms over this. This sort of information should be private, and Facebook should only be accessing information that we've given them permission to access.

Cue the evil doer music, because... Guess what... You did give permission for Facebook to access that information when you installed the Facebook or Facebook Messenger app on your phone. And permission wasn't given by installing the app. Permission was given by a hidden setting that syncs your contact details on your phone with Facebook. Here's the kicker... The setting is set to ON by default — sort-of.

There is actually a dialog that asks if you want to sync your contacts, but the only options it gives is Learn More and OK. How is the average user supposed to know that buried at the bottom of the Learn More option is a tiny Not Now link? So most people hit OK, and presto... You just gave Facebook permission to access your contacts list.

But not all hope is lost. Here's how you can change it, and remove your contracts list from Facebook, without uninstalling the apps — not that uninstalling the apps would remove your contacts list from Facebook anyway.

When Newsletters and Blogs Find the Trash

I subscribed to a range of blogs and newsletters from a variety of sources. Recently, because of the sheer number of subscriptions that I have, I've starting clearing out these emails using my smartphone. There has been a trend to my behavior, and it is formulaic.

For some emails, I just hit delete, never getting past the subject line. Other emails, I skim through to the end, and still hit delete. There are a few that I'll actually click the links and read more.

Everyone will have their own criteria for hitting the delete button, and it really can be as simple as a mood factor. However, there appears to be some things that I honestly believe are person-independent.

Maybe it's time to break this right down.

15 Seconds an Email

Recently, I decided to run a little experiment, and recorded the results. I recorded how I reacted to certain newsletters and blog subscriptions that were delivered to my inbox.

It might sound boring, but trust me, you might find it enlightening.

17 minutes to go through 66 emails. That's an average 15 seconds an email. Of those 66 emails, only 11 survived in my inbox to be looked at later. 3 were marked as share with others, and 2 were flagged to look at in more detail. But of 66 emails, only 1 was actually read while checking emails (off screen, of course). That's not good odds for the carefully constructed message that found its way into my inbox. However, what you might find surprising is that majority of the deleted emails found the trash because the distribution list provider sent the emails in a format that I couldn't read on my iPhone.

Take a look at the sped up footage. I'm willing to bet that you go through your emails just as fast, if not faster.

Reviews and Mixed Emotions

Well… As every writer knows, reviews are important. However, reviews seem to be a fickled beast. If one was to receive a large number of 4- and 5-stars, someone like me starts to question how many of those reviews were posted by friends and family. The odd negative review actually gives merit to those high-ranking reviews. On the flip side, if you have a large number of negative reviews, readers will begin to steer clear of your book (possibly even future books), and sales will go down. To complicate matters, if your book has hardly any reviews at all (good or bad), people are leery and unwilling to try their hand at something new — especially from a new, untested author.

Let’s not forget that getting reviews is a mission and a half.

For my book, Hidden Traps, I didn’t quite know what to expect, and now I feel all confused and uncertain.