41% of Facebook Users Willing To Divulge Personal Info 157
plastick writes "In an experiment, 41% of Facebook users were willing to divulge highly personal information to a complete stranger. This according to IT security firm Sophos, which invited 200 randomly selected Facebookers to befriend a bogus Facebook user named 'Freddi Staur' (an anagram of 'ID Fraudster'). Of those queried, 87 responded to the invitation, among them 82 people whose profiles included personal information such as their email address, date of birth, address or phone number."
Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Was it real (Score:4, Insightful)
How much of that personal information was real and how much was made up?
This information isn't private (Score:4, Insightful)
personal information such as their email address, date of birth, address or phone number
I also have that information on my Facebook profile. It is available for ANYONE to see, including nonfriends.
I don't have a problem here - the problem lies with any bank who would consider that information to be "secret", and would allow someone to get a loan in my name with only that information.
Highly personal? (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe they just don't consider things like that to be "highly personal". By default, most of that information is available by doing such mundane things as registering a domain name. I don't consider contact information to be "highly personal". Somebody younger than me who grew up with social networking is even less likely to.
I wouldn't mind giving my info to him, he's cute (Score:4, Insightful)
just look: http://www.sophos.com/images/misc/freddi_frog.jpg [sophos.com]
Anyway, some issues:
A) Why such a small sample data? I mean, it shouldn't be hard to annoy 1000+ users instead of just 200.
B) Why aren't they talking about apps that access your information? I know you can disable them but, if you are willing to accept froggy here, I don't think you will.
The implications of the whole thing are hilarious:
Apparently, being poked by a Frog doesn't make you want to start a friendship. That could be a better title for the article.
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2007/08/facebook.html [sophos.com]
C) Next Survey: There's a pretty good chance that I'll waste valuable time with inconsequential Slashdot articles. But hey, It's good fun before going to sleep.
A Better Headline (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's just hope none of them end up in missile silos.
Well (Score:3, Insightful)
I do this twice a month. It's called seeing a therapist.