USERS of social media for now must practice caution by carefully analyzing the messages on their accounts to avoid falling into scams perpetrated by cybercriminals.
“Before proceeding with an action, make sure to verify the actual sources first. Another good practice would be to ensure that all online accounts have two-factor authentication and try to include a mix of numbers, symbols, upper-case and lower-case letters in your password,” Kevin Shepherdson, CEO and founder of Straits Interactive, told BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview.
As far as the privacy issue is concerned, Shepherdson said Facebook and its affiliate WhatsApp have to repair the impact of the negative publicity generated by their initiatives on the privacy issue of users. For Facebook, he said the recent privacy controversy was an accumulation of various practices by the social media giant that have emerged including the Cambridge Analytics scandal complemented by WhatsApp’s failure to communicate effectively.
He said the controversy started when WhatsApp announced on January 6 this year announced its privacy policy update requiring its users to share information such as phone number and address with Facebook and its other companies if they want to keep using the service.
WhatsApp announced through their blog the delay of their privacy update from February 8 to May 15 due to the huge backlash it received from users. He added WhatsApp is expected to use this period to send a clearer message to users about its privacy update.
Moreover, Shepherdson said Facebook needs to address its reputational issues, while WhatsApp needs to communicate effectively to users to address the misconception that their messages can be read by WhatsApp.
Shepherdson said WhatsApp has reportedly lost millions of users as a result of the recent privacy policy. However, he pointed out this was just a drop in the bucket as it represents a small fraction of its two billion user database. Meanwhile, Shepherdson said Facebook has experienced several challenges in the past with its stock price taking a hit—only for it to recover quite quickly and the stock remains on an upward trajectory.
Shepherdson said all organizations must comply with data protection/privacy laws that apply to them, and regulators much be quick to take action when they recognize a compliance failure. The largest regulatory fine so far in relation to data protection in Europe is a 50 million Euro fine levied on Google by the French data protection regulator. Other actions are going through the regulatory processes, including actions against Facebook taken by the Irish data protection regulator.
As part of its analysis of data protection trends in 2021, Shepherdson said Straits Interactive expects more privacy breaches along with the usual data breaches. He pointed out it is a social engineering problem caused by user ignorance as users attach unsecured documents containing personal data in chat groups or sharing such information with the wrong recipient. “It’s more important than ever that users take care to download apps only where they are provided by organizations that users trust,” he said.