Potential Cybersecurity Threat in Using Third-Party Facebook Apps (Essay Sample)

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A Reflection on Potential Cybersecurity Threat in using Third-party Facebook apps
The article delivers a brief summary of the different cybersecurity threats that exist in using third-party apps in the Facebook platform. It is very informative since there are a lot of people who uses the Facebook platform without any clue that there are people who use the site in order to get information from its users. Vital information that can be used for cybercrimes particularly login details and other personal information. The Facebook website has its own privacy issues with its users, however, this article mainly focuses on the third-party apps that operates on the Facebook platform. It emphasizes how threats are carried out from these apps and it provides some information on what the users can do to avoid being a victim to these kinds of modus operandi. It brings awareness to the users with regards to privacy consciousness, data collection, malicious apps and the culture of Social Media.
Privacy policy on a website provides detailed information on how they gather and store data from its users and visitors. Facebook has a privacy policy that can guide users on what information they would like to provide on their account. The users have an option to provide what type information they want to give to the website during their sign up process and on their personal and public profile. Third party apps operating on the platform are also guided with the same privacy policy. As mentioned on the discussion in the article, the type of information that the Facebook platform gathers would depend on the user preference. Facebook users who are vulnerable to cybercrimes are categorized based on the sensitivity of the information they provide and the habits they practice in terms of providing information on the web. Facebook users with reckless online practices are the common victims of unauthorized collection of data from malicious third party apps on the platform (Wisniewski et al., 2014).
Being aware of the privacy policy in Facebook or on any other platform can help the users be aware of what information are at stake when the website, or their personal accounts on the website are compromised by a malicious software. The ones who keep valuable information private, and the ones who are careful in sharing their information online are in a safer position compared to the ones who lay it all out for everyone to see. Having an accessible private information will have a higher chance of being targeted by cyber criminals (Raynes-Goldie, 2012).
Collection of personal data in Facebook through their third party apps is now commonly experienced by users. It made me aware how easy it is for software apps to get information from people on the web. Choosing and installing a reliable and safe application on a Facebook account is very important in protecting private information. Phishing and eavesdropping from the third party apps are the most frequent illegal activities that occur in user accounts. Personal information particularly logins and passwords, conversations and other activities are accessed and recorded. Information taken from users are being used for advertisements and marketing activities. There are other culprits who operates in a more serious approach like using the user’s logins to get financial information. And some users uses the same logins on their other online accounts which makes them more vulnerable.
There are also third party apps that are not secured that it compromises their customer’s data. These are legal applications that are improperly developed which have risky security features. These are situations where the full responsibility and damages are shouldered by the company who made the app. And there are third party apps that are designed to collect information specifically for users in the Facebook platform. The third party application is intentionally trying to do a criminal act online and is punishable by law.
There are now a lot of apps available on the web or mobile apps that intentionally gather data from their users. It is visible through the unexpected pop-ups advertisements on our web browsers and the number of marketing emails that we receive. Most of these unusual behavior from browsers came from accessing suspicious websites and installing illegal apps. Third party apps in Facebook has this same issue. It was surprising that a high percentage of the apps that are available for installation on Facebook are malicious. Even if Facebook already updated their privacy policy in order to prevent these kinds of apps to be available in their platform, cyber criminals still find ways to incorporate their apps to the platform. It now leads back to the users in choosing and filtering out the apps that can pose harm to them.
It is up to Facebook users to do additional security measures since there are situations where malicious activities cannot be prevented. It happens unexpectedly and it is in disguise through legitimate apps. Relying on the platform or relying on the app’s security features is not enough to keep our data protected. Installing a software on the PC or on the mobile phone that can help prevent, detect and remove these malicious apps is needed. An Anti-malware software or other similar software is necessary to keep our information and our devices safe from hackers. Upgrading and updating the software and system tools on the PC and other devices is also advisable.
Social media culture also makes the information of people vulnerable to those who wants to take advantage of it. Facebook and other social media platforms made a lot of users enjoy its platform privileges that it m