First we have to define what do we mean by “safer.” For argument sake, we will define safer in terms of identity theft, privacy, pedophiles preying on minors, phishing, viruses, and spyware (See my other posts on Facebook virus).

Is Facebook safer than MySpace?

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• Back when Facebook was only open to college students, it may have been safer then because only people with .edu email addresses were able to join. Now that it has been open to everybody, it also opens the risk of safety concerns.
• Only confirmed networks and friends are allowed to view profiles. Facebook uses a “closed system” (Unless a Facebook Unblock Technique is used) where users can only see profiles of users within the same network.
• Facebook does not have a search tool like MySpace does which allows users, for instance, to search for 14 year olds.
• Facebook has applications where user information is gathered including personal information and Web surfing habits. In August 2008, one of these applications was found to allow users to read comments on other users’ pages, even if they weren’t friends or in the same network.
• Private photographs of users were able to be publicly viewed after a security break in March 2008. Even those of celebrity Paris Hilton were leaked.
• During a test run of Facebook’s beta format in July 2008, private profiles were made public because of an error.
• In a 2007 MySpace hoax, a 13-year-old girl committed suicide in real-life after a neighbor created a fake user named “Josh” posing to be her boyfriend, broke up with her on MySpace.
• A zip file with millions of images from private profiles was taken from MySpace users in January 2008 and uploaded onto bit torrent for anyone to download.
• Anyone can view your profile unless you change your privacy settings.
• Both Facebook and MySpace have privacy settings where you can allow only friends to see your profile.
• In August 2008, a glitch in MySpace’s security allowed private messages of users to be viewed by any MySpace user. Also around the same time, bulletin messages were able to be deleted from any user even if they did not belong to that group.

Tip: If you don’t want to risk your personal information, don’t share it online. Anything you put on the internet is at risk: sent through your email, uploaded pictures, any information on social networking sites.

It doesn’t matter which social network you sign up with, whether it’s Facebook or MySpace. To stay safe, you should keep your computer up-to-date (see tips on my Facebook Virus post), don’t give out personal information, and keep your privacy settings to only your friends.