By Debbie Gardner
debbieg@thereminder.com
When it comes to all things computer-related, Stan Prager knows what he’s talking about. The owner and president of GoGeeks Computer Rescue (gogeeks.com), located in East Longmeadow, MA, his company specializes in computer repair and manufacture, along with offering personalized instruction on such topics as how to transfer digital photos and edit them, back up files, burn CDs and much more. Beyond his tech knowledge, Prager also has a master’s degree in Public History with a focus on digitization, which he calls “the perfect marriage of history and technology.”
A frequent tech expert guest for Western Mass TV, Prager recently worked with Prime about the latest personal information breach on Facebook, and steps you can take to better protect your personal data.
Q: In the wake of the Cambridge Analytics story, most people have updated their Facebook privacy settings. If someone hasn’t done this yet – or isn’t sure how – what steps should they take?
“Facebook privacy settings can be difficult to navigate. The important thing is to go through each one carefully. Different kinds of data – posts, pictures, your phone number, etc. – can be assigned different levels of privacy such as ‘friends,’ ‘public,’ and ‘only me.’
“Nothing should be public. Your phone number or birth date might be ‘only me’ while most everything else should be ‘friends’ only.
“While going through privacy settings, check which ‘Apps’ you may have signed into using Facebook. This is a convenient way to log into third-party apps, but it also opens you up to data sharing that may not be optimal. Sever connections with apps you do not use (you may have forgotten these exist!) and consider creating accounts directly with other apps and not signing in through Facebook.”
Q: Facebook isn’t the only place personal information is vulnerable on the Internet. What other types of sites should users be concerned about? What should they do?
“Unfortunately, Facebook is pervasive in the social media world. Some popular sites such as Spotify and Tinder initially allowed signup only through Facebook. Thus, you may be tethered through Facebook to other critical services for work and education.
“That said, news that personal data has been improperly shared by Facebook and manipulated by a third-party entity (Cambridge Analytica’s massive harvest of Facebook user data) has prompted many to wonder whether they should delete their Facebook and other social networking accounts.
“It’s important to note that deleting your Facebook account is not reversible. If you are not sure what you want to do, you can deactivate your Facebook account and reactivate it later if you so choose. This can be a cooling off period.
“If you do choose to delete your Facebook account, it takes several days to process. You can download your profile data, but the deletion of everything else is not reversible. All of your posts and pictures etc. will be permanently removed. However, messages shared outside of your profile may remain.
“Also keep in mind that all of this data could potentially be stored on a database somewhere, legally or illegally, so deletion will only really protect you going forward.
“A better strategy than deletion could be to simply use greater care in deciding what you choose to share across social networking platforms.”
Q: Congress is considering regulations to protect privacy on social media and apps. Until that happens, what should users do on a regular basis to protect themselves?
“The big thing to remember is that everything you do on the Internet is potentially public, whether or not you intend it to be. Twitter, Instagram, etc. all have privacy settings, but these protections are only as good as the owner of the App. Remember, Facebook let your data fall into the hands of Cambridge Analytica, so whatever your privacy settings were on that App would not have protected your privacy.
“A general rule is this– do not post anything anywhere on the internet that you do not want others to see or know about, including religious and political views, pictures and private information. That is the best way to protect yourself from potential data mining.”
