How to Keep Your Info Safe From Future Mark Zuckerbergs

(Oct. 1) -- A little movie by the name of "The Social Network" opens in theaters nationwide this weekend, and though the overwhelmingly positive reviews are already in, the debate has just begun over what effect the film will have on the popular perception of Facebook, and more specifically, on its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is depicted in a less-than-illustrious light.

Chief among the allegedly real-life incidents that inspired screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's characterization of Zuckerberg are a series of transcripts of instant-messaging chat sessions he had with a friend back when he was a Harvard student, in which he admitted that violating people's trust was key to founding Facebook. We've reprinted the most damning one below:

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb [expletives].

Reading back over that chat, it seems almost absurdly quaint in retrospect: Only the most naive Web user today would willingly hand over such information to someone like Zuckerberg. ... Or would they?

The thing is, as social networks, and Facebook in particular, have become such an integral part of the Web experience, and heck, many people's life experiences for that matter, the idea of sharing information has actually become much more commonplace, often to detrimental effect, as several studies published earlier this year indicate. Even those of us who endeavor to keep our personal information safeguarded are in for a rude awakening, according to Scott Mitic, CEO of TrustedID, a leading company that specializes in identity-theft protection for corporations, organizations and government agencies.

"Facebook is by its very nature a network that involves trust," Mitic told Surge Desk in an exclusive interview. "And wherever there's trust there's opportunity to exploit it for financial gain." He thinks that most users could do with a crash course in basic online ID management. What would he recommend?

1. Choose Your Friends Wisely
"Think about making friends online as you would offline," Mitic advises, "I'm advocating for re-evaluation of friend standards while using the lens that you are sharing data with people you don't know that well and in some cases well at all. Personal default should be to only share things with your friends -- and then when you feel you want less privacy you can roll back your settings."

Tellingly, Zuckerberg himself (or at least his filmic counterpart) is said to be highly selective of his confidants. As Time's Richard Corliss points out in his review of the film, "The briefest summary of this fast, caustic, super-brainy entertainment is that Zuckerberg, then a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard College, was a brilliant, prickly loner -- 'He doesn't have three friends to rub together,' a rival says -- who created a website that gave him, at last count, 500 million friends."

2. Remember: Data Lives Forever (Your Posts Today Never Die)
"The thing that consumers have to think about with Facebook and Twitter is that even these short status updates live forever," Mitic notes, "and they contain lots of potentially incriminating information, far more than people think. Besides damaging your reputation, an identity thief can start to piece together your life from little comments you leave here and there, can open the doors." Some examples Mitic cites as things to avoid sharing are:

• Your birthday
• When you're going home to visit your parents, which reveals place of birth; "From those two pieces of information, I can figure out the majority of digits in your Social Security number," Mitic points out
• Workplace
• Current residence (and pictures of it, which may include your address)
• Current location

3. Learn How to Use the Facebook Security Tools
Every time Facebook has updated its privacy settings, there's been loads of grousing from all corners of the Web, especially in the most recent case, when Facebook was accused of confronting users with a bewildering array of privacy settings.

But Mitic doesn't buy the logic that Facebook is intentionally trying to obfuscate things for users."They have a financial incentive to keep things simple and safe since repeated incidents of privacy violation, information leakage and identity theft would result in people migrating away from their products," he notes. As such, he recommends users take the time to actually learn how to use the pre-existing tools. "Facebook, I think, will always move quickly to cut off any potential security threats, but it's users who are slower to adopt the new settings."

4. Don't Fall for Too-Good-to-Be-True Scams (a la the "dislike" button)
In August, thousands of Facebook users fell prey to a scam that appeared on the surface to be a very enticing, long-sought new feature direct from Facebook HQ: "The Official Dislike Button."

Clamored for by many users since the launch of the corresponding (and very real) "like" button back in early 2009, the "dislike" button scam preyed on what Mitic says is an increasingly popular practice of would-be information violators: enticing users to share their personal data by acting on a current fad or trend.

"Thieves will create microsites and services that will prey on people's interests to see new products," Mitic notes. "So thieves see the rumors of a dislike button, lots of online dialogue about a dislike button, and they whip up something that passably looks like an official version, and boom, there goes your information."

As such, he cautions people to read carefully over every supposedly "new" official online option and hold back, even if you really want to "thumbs-down" a friend's terrible post, until you've verified that what you are installing is legit.

5. Don't Give Up on Social Networks
Despite the myriad challenges that social networks like Facebook pose to safeguarding personal information, Mitic says consumers shouldn't be afraid of them. "A half-billion people are using Facebook and very few are having problems," he observes. "The sensible precautions that we take in our offline world we should be taking in the online world. Risks should not be causing people to reduce use of social networking services. Just like it's far more dangerous to drive to work than to fly, old-school, analog ID theft is much more commonplace than online information theft."