Facebook Graph Search privacy issues have been caused concern, especially for business owners. They are worried that their confidential information will be used by the social network and shown in the search results. As a result, many companies and individuals are now clearing out their post history of any information they do not want to be viewed by just anyone. They are running out of time because Facebook Graph Search has started rolling out today.
What are the Facebook Graph Search privacy issues?
One problem with the new search feature comes not from the information than an individual has posted, but what their friends, family, and work colleagues have uploaded to the site. Pictures can be uploaded, individuals tagged, and people mentioned in posts and articles uploaded by others. Any information about a company that has been posted could potentially be listed by the new search feature.
For individuals this may be seen as an invasion of privacy, but the problem for businesses is potentially far more severe. If an employee posts confidential information about a company, this information could be included in the Facebook Graph Search results and listed in search engines
Facebook contains a lot of personal information. Any photo, post or snippet of information uploaded to the website is no longer private. It can be used by Facebook subject to the privacy settings stipulated by the user. One of the problems Facebook has is how to use all of that data, how to sort it and allow it to be searched.
Facebook Graph Search is one of the ways the site is getting around this problem. It is also a response to complaints that it is very difficult to actually find any information on the site. Huge amounts of data exist, but searching is still a problem for users.
When a search query is entered, the new search function will trawl through the various strands of information on the site and returns results that relate to that search query. Facebook will also include some Bing results. No one knows how good the search function will be, but many have Facebook Graph Search privacy concerns. The data that will be displayed in the results is anyone’s guess at the moment.
Facebook’s attitude to users’ privacy is causing concern
Anyone who uploads a post, image, or photo to Facebook is potentially sharing that information with a lot of people. Facebook can use all of the uploaded information, and does. Profiles are created on users, allowing highly targeted adverts to be shown. Advertisers pay considerable sums of money to get their advertising campaigns placed in front of very specific subsets of individuals. Many people are now concerned about what else Facebook is doing with the data it has collected. Privacy policies are so long and complicated they are rarely read, and even less commonly understood. They also keep changing.
For example, users may have selected the most private settings for their pages and posts, but they cannot opt out of the graph search function. Mark Zuckerberg has already said that over time, all data uploaded to the website will be part of the new search tool.
When the new feature was first announced it caused few waves. Now that the search function is active, many people are worried. Businesses especially so. Research has shown that 73% of employees share a little too much company information on the social media network. Confidential information could therefore easily show up in the searches and be exposed.
