Privacy and security for online social networks: challenges and opportunities

Privacy in Online Social Networks

“…More recently, the impact of social-based technologies on users, and particularly the influence of online social networks, is becoming the major source of contemporary fascination and controversy [27] [33] [34]. A number of studies shed the light on different research directions like the implications of online social networks on individual connectivity [35], the capacity of technology to override cognitive limits in order to socialize with larger groups [36], and the challenge to maintain a balance between security, privacy, usability, and sociability on online social networks [9] [12]. Our focus in this chapter is on the privacy aspects of social networks, where research has primarily aimed to protect social network users with their profiles and relationships.…”

“…Consequently, many privacy-related concerns are raised in terms of identity disclosure, information sharing, access control, etc. [9]. The default social relationship(s) among the users of a number of famous social networks, along with other information, can be found in Table 1.…”

“…It is even hard to handle privacy threats as privacy breaches become numerous when dealing with personal information posted over years, across many online social networks, and shared with different types of contacts (e.g., colleagues, relatives, friends, etc.). In addition, existing privacy settings are relatively complicated to be correctly managed by users [6] [5], online social networks may suffer from design conflicts issues (security and privacy vs. usability and sociability) [9], and may intentionally or accidentally leak users' information to unauthorized entities or third parties [10]. Consequently, it is vital to protect the tremendous amount of information from all sorts of attacks that may compromise users' privacy, invade their security, or disclose their data to unauthorized parties.…”

“…Privacy is a topic that received a lot of attention and has different facets [9] [11] [12] [13]. However, on online social networks some key characteristics that underly privacy are commonly identified [13].…”

Social engineering in social networking sites: Affect-based model

“…Information is always under threat, and it can be intercepted, modified, or exposed. The facilities that are setup to monitor such attacks are also constantly under attack [6]. Such attacks shape the challenges of providing usability and sociability, which are the main purposes of SNSs, as well as ensuring integrity, confidentiality, and availability, which are standard principles of security.…”