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We all use Social Media websites to communicate personally and professionally. We can't avoid it nor do we want to. The ability to connect instantly and trade snippets of information requires less time and effort than ever before and we all, whether we know it or not, end up sharing more information than we want and we often have no idea we are doing it.
Privacy issues have become a major concern. For example, something as simple as buying an App on your Droid or iPhone can unintentionally share information on your social media pages. While you're clicking buttons and downloading Apps you're not always paying attention to the level of access you are granting those Apps. You see an image or video a connection of yours has posted on their profile and when you attempt to view it an unobtrusive request for permissions pops up and you click to "Allow" it. In your desire to read that article, watch that video, or look at that image do you ever really read the permissions you are granting and to whom?
Have you ever noticed that the permission popup window's height is never large enough to display all of the permissions that the App or Service is requesting? Often times, you inadvertantly grant permissions to post on your behalf. This is an invitation for a service or application to advertise to your connections/friends that you both use their service and how you use it whether you want that to be displayed publicly or not. Forget about using Facebook to "Sign In" to another website. You might as well display your bank account information as your profile picture.
Apps and services count on your impatience and they use it against you. They count on the features of their app and its popularity to temporarily disable your internal firewall and better judgement and get you to grant access to your personal information that you wouldn't tell you own family much less EVERYONE else. Lately, it seems that growing supporters of this model are News Organizations and Magazine websites; things we take for granted. A friend posts a video, image, or article that looks intriguing and you click on it only to find that you have to allow the magazine or website to install their app and you have to grant them entire access to your account. Only then can you look at the article or video. Meanwhile, you've now given a company access to your profile information, your friends, their emails, phone numbers etc. The list goes on for miles. Yet, the question in your mind of, "why does this company need unfettered access to my profile," never came up or if it did, you glossed over your suspicions and proceeded.
In summary... read what it is you are agreeing to at all times. Don't be in so much of a hurry that you put your information and those of your connections at risk. I'm not saying that all Apps and Services that require account access are bad, just read the fine print and understand why it needs access and then make an educated decision. Otherwise, you might notify the whole world that you just watched "People Of Walmart (Sexy And I Know It - LMFAO)"... you know who you are!
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