Is Facebook panicking over its latest privacy crisis? The leading social-networking site has seen its share of privacy backlash in its brief lifetime. However, with criticism mounting from privacy advocates and the U.S. government alike, the young company may be feeling the pressure like never before.
Facebook held a company meeting to discuss privacy issues in what some bloggers have described as a panic-stricken response to public attacks on how it handles member information. Facebook also announced two new security measures Thursday that aim to keep member accounts and personal information secure.
“It would definitely appear that Facebook is moving at a very fast pace, perhaps, in many cases, too fast for some of its users,” said Michael Gartenberg, a partner at Altimeter Group. “On the other hand, the market almost demands that type of fast pace, and consumers need to understand the implications of what they are doing online and take responsibility.”
Securing Your Facebook Account
One way consumers can take responsibility is to use the new Facebook tools that work to keep the bad guys out and keep members aware of any suspicious activity so they can take action to correct it.
“Over the last few weeks, we’ve been testing a new feature that allows you to approve the devices you commonly use to log in and then to be notified whenever your account is accessed from a device you haven’t approved,” explained Lev Popov, a software engineer on Facebook’s site-integrity team. “This feature is now available to everyone.”
The security feature lets users select the option to receive notifications for log-ins from new devices. You can save your home computer, your school or work computer, and your mobile phone, for example. When you do this, Facebook will ask whomever logs into your account from a device that is not on…