A Report on Security Concerns and Data Privacy Issues in Facebook

This report delves into the security concerns surrounding Facebook, highlighting instances where the platform's security has been compromised, leading to significant public concern. It discusses how Facebook collects user data, including personal information, browsing history, and mobile app details, raising the risk of data breaches and misuse. The report references the Cambridge Analytica scandal as a prime example of a major security breach where user data was exploited for political manipulation. It also touches upon Facebook's efforts to address these security issues, such as bug bounty programs and updated security protocols. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of user awareness and adherence to security guidelines to protect personal data on the platform, while also suggesting that users should be more careful about what information they share and with whom they connect.

Running head: SECURITY CONCERNS IN FACEBOOK
Security Concerns in Facebook
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1SECURITY CONCERNS IN FACEBOOK
Introduction
Facebook can be said as the one of the most used social media website that is been
world-wide by millions of people. The site was created by Mark Zuckerberg in the year of
2004 and has advanced a lot since then. The security options have also advanced a lot since
the creation of the site. Security is one of the major concerns for the organisation for the
improvement of the systems1 .Although of its strict rules and regulation there are some of the
major security drawbacks that are concerning the people using the platform and the
organisation2. Discussed in this paper are some of the major cases where the security of the
organisation was overthrown which caused some of the major chaos in the public in the
recent years.
Discussion
The Facebook can be explained as the book where people can connect to other people
and use the function of the platform. In order to access the platform the individual needs to
enrol some of the major personal information in the system for example name, phone
number, email id etc. After the person is in Facebook, can access people all over the world
and can connect with them. The website of the platform can access different personal
information of from the PC like the IP, webcam, browser details and other among all. Other
than this the Facebook also haves android and the IPhone applications which also takes the
permit of the users phone details like the contact information, camera , gps, browsers, gallery,
1 Zlatolas, Lili Nemec, et al. "Privacy antecedents for SNS self-disclosure: The case of
Facebook." Computers in Human Behavior 45 (2015): 158-167.
2 Pons, Alexander, et al. "Security and privacy implications of'do not track'." International
Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity 3.2 (2017): 117-133.

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file managers, virtual keyboards, microphone and others. Thus, if there is no proper security
thread in the system then the personal information of the users can be at high risk3. This is
because of the factor that hackers can access the information and can use it for foul plays.
Other than this the Facebook also access the information from the classifieds. That is if any
one logins to the market places like the Amazon, the Facebook take the wish list information
from the servers and use them as ads in the platform. It can be said that in the recent times
Facebook knows everything about a person.
Some of the major security issues that the organisation is been facing in the recent
years have troubled the public a lot. There are number of times the organisation is accused of
stealing the data of the peoples and selling them to the third party vendors. In the recent past
many of the countries including the Britain have accused the organisation and ordered the
probe to the organisation4. This has affected the organisation a lot. One of the major such
hack that affected the organisation internally, employees who used the company’s moderation
software which is software to review and remove the contents of that are not well for the
organisation. A bug which was learned in the year of the 2017, exposed the threats that the
personal profiles of the employees appearing as the notification of the activity log of the
groups. The data of the employees were visible to all the people in the groups other than the
admins of the group.
3 Dehling, Tobias, et al. "Exploring the far side of mobile health: information security and
privacy of mobile health apps on iOS and Android." JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3.1 (2015).
4 Sicari, Sabrina, et al. "Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road
ahead." Computer networks 76 (2015): 146-164.

3SECURITY CONCERNS IN FACEBOOK
One of the major security breach that hampered the operation of the organisation and
the people’s data in the year of 2018, affecting approx. 87millions of Facebook users. The
case which the organisation affected was the third person5. The organisation was accused that
it sold the information to a third party organisation named as the Cambridge Analytica. It was
seen that the organisation used the data of the Facebook to hamper the polls in different
countries like the USA. After this happened it was seen that the organisation helped the
current US government to manipulate the election and fix the result6. The hack included all
the personal information of the Facebook android application and the data of the users. All
the data were stored in a third party server7. Although the CEO of the Facebook denied such
claims about the organisation but accepted that Facebook may have neglected the knowledge
of such incident. This hack opened the personal information of millions of people to the
hackers8.
Many of the countries blamed the organisation for the data thefts. Many of the users
also deleted the Facebook accounts to keep data safe, but the tires were in vain because of the
5 Liang, Xiaohui, et al. "Security and privacy in mobile social networks: challenges and
solutions." IEEE Wireless Communications 21.1 (2014): 33-41.
6 Toch, Eran, et al. "The Privacy Implications of Cyber Security Systems: A Technological
Survey." ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 51.2 (2018): 36.
7 Weedon, Jen, William Nuland, and Alex Stamos. "Information operations and
Facebook." version 1 (2017): 27.
8 Davies, Nigel, et al. "Security and privacy implications of pervasive memory
augmentation." IEEE Pervasive Computing14.1 (2015): 44-53.

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factor that the theft was already done. The Facebook cleared the factor that the hack was due
to factor that the users used a malicious software which took the information from the
Facebook and stored them.
Since this incident the Facebook have had changed a lot of the security protocols, and
the rules and the regulation of the users. Other than this the Facebook also have some of the
bug bounty programs where the people if finds a bug in the systems of the Facebook can
report it to the Facebook and earn money. People can themselves secure the personal data
with simple means and following the procedures.
Conclusion
Thus, concluding the topic it can be said that although the organisation promises to
provide optimum security to the users can face some of the major drawbacks and hence the
data of the public can be stolen. Hence the people’s needs to follow the guidelines
accordingly. The Facebook is a platform for the purpose of connecting to the people around
the world. Individuals must not connect to people who are unknown to them. Other than this
the user id and the password of the Facebook account must not be used for the other places
than the Facebook website or the application itself. The users must not give permits to
application that have not been authorized by the organisation to access the details of the
profile such as games, quiz functions and the others. Most importantly individuals must read
the security policies given in the beginning and follow accordingly.

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References:
Davies, Nigel, et al. "Security and privacy implications of pervasive memory
augmentation." IEEE Pervasive Computing14.1 (2015): 44-53.
Dehling, Tobias, et al. "Exploring the far side of mobile health: information security and
privacy of mobile health apps on iOS and Android." JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3.1 (2015).
Liang, Xiaohui, et al. "Security and privacy in mobile social networks: challenges and
solutions." IEEE Wireless Communications 21.1 (2014): 33-41.
Pons, Alexander, et al. "Security and privacy implications of'do not track'." International
Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity 3.2 (2017): 117-133.
Sicari, Sabrina, et al. "Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road
ahead." Computer networks 76 (2015): 146-164.
Toch, Eran, et al. "The Privacy Implications of Cyber Security Systems: A Technological
Survey." ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 51.2 (2018): 36.
Weedon, Jen, William Nuland, and Alex Stamos. "Information operations and
Facebook." version 1 (2017): 27.
Zlatolas, Lili Nemec, et al. "Privacy antecedents for SNS self-disclosure: The case of
Facebook." Computers in Human Behavior 45 (2015): 158-167.