Strangely enough, it won't surprise anyone. Some may be offended, but it seemed pretty obvious that our Facebook account could be accessed so easily. Certainly, we lock it with a password. But this password must be effective enough, to prevent anyone from being able to access our private information.
No need for passwords to penetrate Facebook accounts
It was Finnish music producer Paavo Siljamaki who made the discovery, during an appointment with the American firm, that employees of the number one social network could consult at leisure all accounts of all Facebook subscribers, without the need for passwords. In absolute terms, all the private information of each registrant can therefore be not only read, but also disclosed by unscrupulous employees.
Facebook's response
Facebook assures that this option is offered only to certain employees, depending on their functions in the company, and always with the aim of fixing certain bugs. In addition, the company states that it was recently audited by the equivalent of the Irish CNIL as part of an audit. And that's where the problem lies. It is no coincidence that the European headquarters of the largest high-tech companies are based in Ireland. The Irish CNIL is a real sieve. Therefore, we cannot be sure of the high reliability of the controls. And even though Facebook assures that suspicious employees will be tracked and fired in case of abuse, there is no evidence to verify this and doubt is allowed.
We don't hide vital information on Facebook.
Anyway, and unless you're dreaming, we already know that Facebook is not the ideal place to hide information that is too intimate, even sensitive. In recent years, loopholes on the networks of some countries allowed anyone who knew how to find them to consult the profiles of anyone. Moreover, when you consider that the most common password used in 2014 was "123456", you think that many people don't care what could be found on their page. Finally, the personal information stored on our computers is already easily accessible for a hacker of good level, so on a social network …
What about data protection on Facebook?
Facebook, like it or not, is a public space, more or less secure depending on the privacy settings set up by the user. To think that one can preserve total intimacy in a public square is utopian, if not naivety. The social network must be seen as a virtual place in which exchanges are possible with geographically distant people, but especially not as a private place that could be opened to a chosen audience from time to time. One way or another, everything that is posted on Facebook is public. Knowing that employees of the firm can access it more simply than others is not so disturbing.
Also read our expert advice on how not to get hacked Facebook.
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