When I first started out on Facebook, I got really into some of the many fun applications, adding various ones to the Boxes tab of my profile. And after a bit, I got away from using the apps and focusing on other areas of Facebook like the groups, pages, etc.
So last night, when I decided to take a peek at my Boxes tab for the first time in awhile, you can imagine my surprise when I found a straight up porn image sent to me by one of my “friends” in an application that allows people to send you images, videos, etc.
Needless to say, within minutes, I removed that application (along with another similar one) from my Boxes tab. Thank goodness this wasn’t an application that was on my main profile page. I’m already embarrassed that it sat on a part of my profile that (hopefully) not many people probably check out anyway, let alone if it had been blaring on the page everyone sees first when they visit my profile, although I probably would have known about it sooner in that case.
I don’t know much about how certain applications work. I have no clue if the “friend” who sent this to me didn’t actually mean to because his account was hacked. What I do know is that, at some point, I must have turned off the notification for this application, because I haven’t been receiving updates when I receive new things through that application. Either way, notified or not, I allowed that application access to my profile and gave it permission to let anyone post anything they want to my profile without any approval required.
So let this be a warning to those of you who add applications to your profile – you are opening the door for other people to add content to your profile that you may not necessarily want there. If you do have applications that allow such activity (like RockYou Live, Slide FunSpace, etc.), you may want to keep any eye on them to make sure there is nothing appearing in them that you wouldn’t want on your page. Or, if the application allows you to, set it to show only items that you have chosen vs. those you have received so you can prevent having someone else’s inappropriate “gifts” to you being displayed on your profile. You have to be really careful these days about your online presence, and if you’re concerned that Facebook’s privacy settings aren’t enough to protect your profile or your information, perhaps you should check into an identity theft protection service.
