Social networks – access all areas?

The popularity of social networks has provided a rich environment for users to share a variety of personal and corporate data. While this can enable effective relationships with both friends and business contacts, users can often face challenges in controlling how widely their data is shared. This article highlights the potential difficulties of understanding how to control privacy, and then doing so in practice via the options that social networking services actually provide. The discussion is supported by examination of the related facilities available within Facebook and LinkedIn, ultimately revealing that users in both personal and business contexts may find it far easier to release and expose sensitive data than they do to withhold and protect it.