Facebook Privacy Breach – a Cause for Concern?
Pornography, child safety and hate speech have all figured amongst the issues that Mauritius has endured over the past couple of months.
So what is next? On Monday, Facebook was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons yet again. Many users in France encountered a ‘bug’, resulting in the publication of private messages dating back to 2009 on their timeline. Facebook has denied the ‘bug’ and the privacy breach, but it did not stop users reacting and expressing their discontent. The public have queried about the matter and have acknowledged that if it can happen in France, then surely it may happen in Mauritius as well. News on Sunday investigates.
According to statistics, we currently have 323,800 Mauritians on Facebook, 55% of them are males. The age group that is more active is the 18-34 one and comprises 63% of total users based in our country. Facebook’s continued growth in Mauritius is not a prosaic one of devices, applications, and Internet penetration alone. It is about the Mauritian nature and temperament. We are allowed to express whatever we want and find out what people want to tell us. However, what happens to intimate details and personal information we may wish to keep secret?
Facebook's growth as an Internet social-networking site as well as its very existence has faced criticism on a range of issues. Apart from the ever growing health problems, leaks, hacks, scams, security – the long outstanding debate regarding privacy issues has once more surfaced with recent events in France. The messages that surfaced where ‘inbox messages’ and should not have been allowed to be seen by a third party. Users saw old private messages surfacing on their timeline. Facebook denies any privacy breach – but has been called to explain itself to the Government in France, where the panic was first reported.
International research reports claim that privacy is an ever-increasing concern as Facebook and other social media become a more central part of everyday
So what is next? On Monday, Facebook was in the limelight for all the wrong reasons yet again. Many users in France encountered a ‘bug’, resulting in the publication of private messages dating back to 2009 on their timeline. Facebook has denied the ‘bug’ and the privacy breach, but it did not stop users reacting and expressing their discontent. The public have queried about the matter and have acknowledged that if it can happen in France, then surely it may happen in Mauritius as well. News on Sunday investigates.
According to statistics, we currently have 323,800 Mauritians on Facebook, 55% of them are males. The age group that is more active is the 18-34 one and comprises 63% of total users based in our country. Facebook’s continued growth in Mauritius is not a prosaic one of devices, applications, and Internet penetration alone. It is about the Mauritian nature and temperament. We are allowed to express whatever we want and find out what people want to tell us. However, what happens to intimate details and personal information we may wish to keep secret?
Facebook's growth as an Internet social-networking site as well as its very existence has faced criticism on a range of issues. Apart from the ever growing health problems, leaks, hacks, scams, security – the long outstanding debate regarding privacy issues has once more surfaced with recent events in France. The messages that surfaced where ‘inbox messages’ and should not have been allowed to be seen by a third party. Users saw old private messages surfacing on their timeline. Facebook denies any privacy breach – but has been called to explain itself to the Government in France, where the panic was first reported.
International research reports claim that privacy is an ever-increasing concern as Facebook and other social media become a more central part of everyday