So, as most of you know, FarmVille, a recent Facebook app, has really taken off in terms of popularity. Most Facebook users that I know have at least heard of FarmVille, if they are not already playing on it. One of my good friends is constantly raving about how she expanded on her farm, and that I should join. Just the other day, there was an update on her facebook page that said she saved an animal from certain, um, danger (i.e. piglet saved from the butcher, or something to that effect). Bottom line, it is interesting to see that this farming application has really taken off, and it's popularity continues to grow everyday.
However, like any application, FarmVille (which is a gaming application developed by US developer Zynga) is also experiencing it's own setbacks. For example, my roommate told me the other day that one of her teachers had discussed recent events where people are getting their accounts hacked into and having their property stolen/sold. While, yes, FarmVille is a game, people still do invest a lot of time and virtual money to build their farms, day by day. Quite frankly, a player's farm is the fruit of their labor, even if the result is not exactly tangible. Just an interesting tidbit to think about.
In more recent news (an article dated Dec.1, 2009), however, there appears to be a FarmVille Scam going around: some users have been "complaining of unauthorised payments taken from their credit cards after participating in promotions linked to the game which serve to generate in-game currency or other rewards". With 60 million FarmVille players worldwide, it's safe to say that there are a lot of people who are at risk of being subject to this scam. What makes it more difficult is the fact that it is nearly impossible for users' money to be refunded, due to the nature of agreeing to subscribe or participate in certain promotions that are full of unread fine-print. According to the article, this particular scam seems to be a classic case of SMS subscription scam, and FarmVille is just one of many Zynga applications that seem to be under fire for their suspicious billing policies. Facebook has made moves to improve its standards for third-party applications, however, one cannot be assured that this will necessarily prevent similar scams from happening in the future. The fact is that the FarmVille application was not created by a random third-party user, but rather by a legitimate developer brand that was "also was named Hot Brand by US magazine Advertising Age last month". Perhaps it was the responsibility of FarmVille users to read the fine-print, wherein they would have discovered some information relating to these otherwise unauthorized billings. But really, who ever reads the fine print?
So...FarmVille users: make sure that you keep an eye on your credit card charges.
Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/facebooks-farmville-loses-its-country-glow-20091201-k3c7.html
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
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In other facebook news, the facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, is taking steps to maintain privacy for his users. I feel like these applications are the main reason that a lot of the security issues occur on Facebook. Zuckerberg has removed all regional networks on facebooks and is placing networks back to how facebook was originally set up. I think this is a great idea for facebook as too many fake users have created accounts based on regions. They likewise have access to other users information in those regions if people don't place their settings properly. For this reason, Zuckerberg and the facebook team have made settings easier to understand and have gone back to originally setting up facebook. They have made it to allow only friends to view information, friends of friends, and everyone. For this reason, I feel as though Mark Zuckerberg and the facebook team are making strides to making facebook safer and better.
ReplyDeleteOnce again another example of these social networks being a liability to its users' personal information and account security. I know eliminating such networks are a lofty aspiration. But would it not be logical to begin to slowly lessen our involvement as a society in these exposing and public social networks? I do not care what privacy limits the website says one's profile is under, it is not. These sites obtain and then own any information or data posted by all its users. Who is to say they do not sell this useful informtion to our future employers? Would one want the information they post on the internet to become public knowledge? Some would be fine with this. Others I would think would not.
ReplyDeleteThis article discusses not only personal information being obtained by hackers through this FarmVille application but credit card numbers too. It just seems to me that everyday there are similar stories being releases all pointing to the vulnerabilities facebook users expose themselves too. The government needs to begin to regulate these sites and ensure its users that identity theft or others crimes of the sort no longer occur.
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ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this application but people who are willing to give up their credit card information in order to obtain "in-game currency and other rewards" should almost be expecting to get scammed. What good could possibly come from giving up your credit card information to a video game for virtual money that has no value outside of FarmVille. Even if Zynga is a legitimate company that doesn't mean they are not willing to scam customers. Remember Bernie Madoff and his ponzi scheme...
ReplyDeleteAs far as Mark Zuckerberg goes, I do not think that removing regional networks is going to eliminate privacy issues with Facebook. People can still add others as a "friend" and then view their information. While some people will be cautious to accept a friend request from someone they do not know, I believe the majority of Facebook users are happy to gain a new friend and will then expose themselves to users with malicious intent.
I was particularly interested in the second paragraph of this piece. Most of the attacks we have discussed pertain to businesses, government or individuals. However, it does not seem unreasonable that some people would devote their time to attempting to hack online games. While this may seem like a frivilous waste of time to some, to others this is a very important component of their lives (a possible reflection of our society?). With the advent of massively multiplayer online games, notably the ever popular World of Warcraft, it would seem logical that someone with a lot of time and technical knowledge would try to attack these games for their benefit.
ReplyDelete