I've come across a number of articles discussing Facebook privacy, and I couldn't resist commenting, which, in turn, encouraged me to summarize my thoughts regarding this matter. I think that the mini-scandals having to do with online privacy issues in social networks are, to a large extent, groundless and exaggerated.

Ones you are using a social network like Facebook, your primary goal is to expose your online identity to a community. Facebook provides you with comprehensive control of how far you may go with this exposure. It also allows you to flexibly tune your privacy settings, making your information either accessible or not to certain groups of users.

If you are so concerned about your online privacy, stop using social networks ; do not upload your pictures and do not publish your contact information. Even if you take all these measures, someone may still take a picture or video of you, tag you or pretend to be you. You still have a chance “to meet yourself” on a dating site, find a comment made by you that you never posted, etc. Cyber-world has its own logic and once you enter it you should be ready for surprises.

The interesting aspect about social networks and especially Facebook is so-called identity control. Everybody knows how prevalent fake-identity activity is on the net, especially when dating or marketing is involved. Facebook takes this phenomenon to the next level, as dating and marketing are considerable components of the social network nature. In other words, Facebook has become a very attractive playground for fake personages. Perhaps more than any other social network, Facebook emphasizes the truth of its users. Their name, their friends, their past, their life. By fostering truth, Facebook has encouraged a new movement, what could be termed as social media nudity. However, while some users take an almost voyeuristic delight in this exposure, others see potential in faking their nakedness. Facebook's emphasis on the real has a counter-effect on some; they are attracted to the ability to re-invent themselves, or even create new identities.

The principle of networking and identity exposure encourages certain groups of real users to surround themselves with fake friends. A fake mini-community gathered around a given person is meant to boost his or her social status with the help of wall posts and comments. At the same time, a sexually-appealing fake profile is able to easily gather a community of real users around them. This community can be subsequently used as a target group, once a creator of the fake profile decides to market anything, be it a product or an idea.

If we take a look at online identity control in social networks, we may see some interesting examples. For instance, European social network www.one.lv requires your cell phone number in the registration process. Once you submit your information, they send you SMS with your individual code. This code is required to activate your account. Any cell phone number can only be used for a single given profile within this social network. Another simple way of online identity control is requesting a scanned photo ID. Facebook, however, does not employ any identity control measures.

Why don't they? Here is the answer: Facebook is booming and the number of its users rapidly grows. So does the traffic. Facebook is perfectly aware that a certain percentage of its user database consists of fake profiles and they are probably able to identify and block most of them. No wonder; fake users generate aggressive online activity and Facebook wants to constantly report more users and more traffic, which will see its price grow accordingly.

What do fake profiles have to do with online privacy? Your picture published on Facebook can be taken by somebody and used in a fake profile. If you are using a public computer and forget to log off, someone may replace your contact information. One of my junior colleague at SearchAnyway will even check my computer periodically to see if I've left Facebook open. I've had to clean up many of his messes before my caution took over.

My conclusion is that despite the fact that Facebook provides a fair level of flexibility in terms of identity exposure, it does not employ sufficient measures to protect your information against theft, which is a slightly different issue. The European social network www.mail.ru displays images of the users in a format that disables “saving picture as” function. In this case only advanced users who are familiar with “Print screen” function and photo editing software can copy images. Some other social networks require entering your password every time you intend to upload a new picture or change your contact information. These measures would be able to solve many of the above-mentioned problems.