Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

41% of Facebook Users Willing To Divulge Personal Info

Posted by samzenpus on from the do-you-need-my-social-security-number? dept.

plastick writes "In an experiment, 41% of Facebook users were willing to divulge highly personal information to a complete stranger. This according to IT security firm Sophos, which invited 200 randomly selected Facebookers to befriend a bogus Facebook user named 'Freddi Staur' (an anagram of 'ID Fraudster'). Of those queried, 87 responded to the invitation, among them 82 people whose profiles included personal information such as their email address, date of birth, address or phone number."

4 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Misleading Title by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Willing to Divulge to" makes it sound like some complete stranger went on facebook and asked "Hey, give me your email address, blood type and shoe size" and got an answer.

    What it really is, is that people add friends pretty randomly and openly, and many don't secure their personal information very well. In the ideal case you would have various 'grades' of friends which determine permissions but

    a) Nobody would bother using it
    b) Facebook doesn't particularly care about privacy.

    Anyhoo, we knew all of this earlier - so non-story.

  2. Re:Was it real by MrEricSir · · Score: 1, Informative

    Email: president@whitehouse.gov
    Date of birth: 01/01/01
    Address: 123 Fake St., Fakesville, ZZ
    Phone: 666-HELL

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  3. This article is four years old. by Krystalo · · Score: 5, Informative

    This article was published in August 2007.

  4. Re:Again? by One+Louder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently, it *was* a News Flash back in 2007 when this article was written.