Ways Teens Giveup Privacy on Facebook - Social Media Data Mining Dangers Impact Kids

Parenting

How Teens Are Giving Away Their Privacy on Facebook

Are kids today really oversharing online? More and more experts are agreeing that teenagers are baring their souls on social media like never before -- with Facebook, in particular, being challenged about how it handles the personal data of our children. In fact, by now, just about every mom and dad has heard about multiple instances where the privacy of middle school and high school students (and too often, even younger kids) have been needlessly threatened.

Teens are being affected in record numbers, MommyBlogExpert.com

Stanford University computer science professor and online privacy expert Monica Lam has an important message for youth and their parents: Be careful about how you use Facebook because you may be giving away your privacy and empowering teen marketers without even knowing it. 

Mobile devices now an essential tool for teenagers, MommyBlogExpert.com

Lam has identified four ways activities on Facebook that can damage your privacy and even impact future college admissions and job prospects

1. GIVING UP RIGHTS TO PERSONAL CONTENT 
Facebook actually "owns" any family photos, messages, and unique ideas that you create and post on the site or via its app.

2. EMPOWERING MARKETERS BY "LIKING" THINGS 
With its "likes" functionality, Facebook allows marketers to target you based on the people and things you associate with yourself. Every time you like something, you are giving a bit of privacy away.

Adolescent girls & boys interact constantly via social media, MommyBlogExpert.com

3. SHARING INFORMATION ABOUT FRIENDS 
By using Facebook to login to other websites, you're unknowingly sharing much of your friends' private and valuable data with third parties (and your friends could be sharing your data, too).

4. TAKING QUIZZES THAT STORE PERSONAL PREFERENCES 
Any time you take a Facebook quiz, you're potentially making public a little bit more about yourself and your personal tendencies.

Dr. Monica Lam at Stanford, Image provided by Monica Lam, Ph.D.

About Monica Lam, Ph.D.
Dr. Lam has been a professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University since 1988. As an alternative to social networking and messaging services that store and monetize personal information, Lam has created the Omlet chat app which is available for free. This is a fun messaging app allowing teens and their parents to easily chat with friends, share photos, post videos, take quizzes, and express themselves without fear of their data being sold or breached.

FTC Disclosure:  Monica Lam provided most of the content for this post. However, no payment or other compensation was exchanged in connection with this post. See complete FTC Disclosure information that appears at the bottom of MommyBlogExpert's home page and at the bottom of every individual post on this blog, including this one.