Ron Schenone

Consumers Still Act Like Dummies Online And Share Private Information

Posted by on May 5, 2010 | 8 Comments

In what should not come as a surprise, but still does, it seems that consumers still are using the Internet like a toy. In a recent survey by Consumer Reports, 52% of respondents have posted personal information online. It gets better. These people have posted their home addresses, date of birth, and also information about their children. Unbelievable!

But when it comes to social networking sites, the numbers are less:

On Facebook only, 42 percent have posted their date of birth, 7 percent have posted street addresses, and 3 percent have disclosed when they were away from home. About 23 percent of Facebook users, meanwhile, are either unaware that Facebook has privacy controls that protect this information or do not use them.

Another 26 percent of Facebook users post their children’s photos and names, which could potentially expose them to predators, the report said.

Of the 18.4 million people who have installed Facebook apps, 38 percent were confident that the apps were secure or had not thought about. About 1.8 million computers were infected by social networking apps in the past year, Consumer Reports said.

Now that’s good news. Only 42% are idiots when it comes to posting information on Facebook! What is wrong with people?

There was also this:

Overall, Consumer Reports found that 1.7 million online households were victims of Web-related ID theft in the last year, 5.4 million online consumers submitted personal data via phishing e-mails, and that cyber-crime has cost American consumers $4.5 billion over the past two years, trashing an estimated 2.1 million computers.

Solving this problem doesn’t require expensive technology, however, the report concluded. “It requires the networks themselves to keep improving their privacy practices and better educating users,” the report said.

Better educate users? Where do these people live? In a cave? LOL

Comments welcome.

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  • Dick

    I’m constantly amazed how folks openly share information over the phone and the internet with not only strangers but with the great unwashed enemy out there in Internet land.

    This might be an opportunity for cleaning out the Internet gene pool. These idiots expect everyone else to take accountability for their stupid behavior. It’s MS/Apple/HP/everybody Else’s fault, never their fault. Let’s get them financially ruined first. Then let them get ponzi schemed, virus laden, robbed, etc., etc. until the gene pool starts to show some clarity. These folks should never be able to move past watching TV as their most complex task.

    While we’re here fighting over MS/MAC/LINUX – IE/FF/CHROME/OPERA – OpenOffice/MS Office – whatever, they are busy offering up their most private information with wide eyed innocence. These folks will cause the downfall of the Internet by forcing government to protect them from their own stupidity, thereby removing all our freedoms on the net.

    Phew! I’m done.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Hi Dick,
      Good points.

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  • http://justenrobertson.com Justen

    It’s not idiotic to share information on the internet, it’s only idiotic to not think about what you’re sharing. I post quite a bit of information about myself – everything that is already public information. Any two-bit identity thief with a half hour to waste can find out your address, date of birth, how many children you have and their names, information about your extended family, who you’re married to, where you’ve lived in the past 7 years, and quite a lot of other information. This is all a matter of public record. Employers look this stuff up routinely while processing applications. For another $25-$35, anyone who wants to can get your credit records. Starting around $65 they can hire a professional private investigator to churn up all kinds of embarrassing so-called “private” information about you.

    Like it or not, this stuff is easily accessible and is not what you need to be paranoid about. What you need to protect are bank account numbers, passwords, credit card numbers, your social security number, your driver’s license number, essentially all numbers and secret keys that identify or allow access to your accounts, business transactions, and government data. Work phone numbers, email addresses, and things like that are also good to protect as they will prevent a social engineer from exploiting public information about you in an attack against your employer. Those are the keys that an identity thief needs to do anything useful with all that publicly available information.

    He will most likely get this stuff out of your trash can, via social engineering, or through exploiting your trust at his workplace (for instance by scanning your credit cards, taking surreptitious snapshots of your account information, or accessing customer databases). Hacking is a remote possibility as well but most data leaks happen due to carelessness, not technical attacks. You can stop the first by using a decent paper shredder, you can stop the second by verifying the identity of anyone asking for this information from you by phone, letter, or email, and you can get some security against the last mainly by keeping a close eye on the guy handling your credit card at the store. Monitoring your credit and your bank accounts regularly will help you catch suspicious activity.

    In short, be smart and educated, not paranoid and isolated. : )

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