31 Privacy and Vulnerability Issues of Social Networks (Facebook)

Since the advent of the internet, users are fast becoming more and more dependent on it for communication and to stay connected. From the early days of the internet chat rooms like IRC and Yahoo! Messenger and such, the latest trends which have since captivated most internet users are in the social networking areas. In its popularity, social networks are faced with problems of their own. This report documents the various problems faced by social networks like Facebook and Friendster where Facebook is being used as the primary case illustrated. This report investigates the main problem Facebook has been trying to overcome. It investigates the issue of privacy and vulnerability and how both have been constant problems for Facebook because of the fact that its users are fast losing privacy from those involved in identity theft and such. From there, it provides viable options which can be used as solutions as well as looking into areas where Facebook could improve in order to gain the confidence of the users. It also provides alternatives for Facebook to implement to enhance its security features for its users.