Facebook Quizzes and Privacy
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 by budding_writer
Following the link posted by Luke Goode, I took the Facebook quiz which was talked about. To my horror, I discovered that the creator of a Facebook quiz can actually access MY information when a friend takes a quiz. Personally, I find this shocking and a real breach of privacy, as I have not selected to share that information, it is simply being taken by the creator through my friend who is taking the quiz. Whilst I understand that if I myself take a quiz that information about me is released to the creator, I think that taking information through someone else counts as a breach of privacy.
In the reading for this week, danah boyd writes that "information is not private because no one knows it; it is private because the knowing is limited and controlled" (pg 18). In this situation I feel that the information is not being limited or controlled by default, the information of anyone is shared through their friends' choices in quizzes. More troubling is the fact that anyone with an email address can create a quiz, so this potential which quizzes have for stealing or mining information is open to anyone.
I have now changed my privacy settings so that a creator of a quiz can only see my basic information and profile picture. Although, I am not entirely convinced that this is the solution.