British Spy's Cover Blown on Facebook

The onset of social networking – sometimes referred to as “Web 2.0” – has raised the profile of privacy concerns that range widely in terms of magnitude and severity. For some, it’s an embarrassing or compromising photograph from college – while for others such graphic outings can pose much more serious repercussions.

 

But what we’re hearing out of the United Kingdom today takes that kind of concern to a whole new level.

 

The latest confidentiality breach reportedly is the outing of the new head of Britain’s spy agency, whose wife had posted pictures of her husband, family and friends on the wildly popular social networking site Facebook (News - Alert), details of which could compromise security, a British newspaper said on Sunday.

 

Sir John Sawers is due to take over as head of the Secret Intelligence Service in November. The SIS, popularly known as MI6, is Britain’s global intelligence-gathering organization. The agency could not be reached for immediate comment.

 

Facebook has been taking some heat lately from subscribers deactivating their accounts due to the lack of privacy they feel they are receiving. As TMCnet reported last week, Facebook wants nothing more but to be friends, and “breaking up” with the company, for whatever reason, can prove to be difficult.

 

Company officials said last week that the new privacy settings will give people greater control over what photos, updates and personal details they share with their friends, family and strangers.

 

In what the Mail on Sunday called an “extraordinary lapse,” the new spy chief’s wife, Lady Shelley Sawers, posted family pictures and exposed details of where the couple live and take their holidays and who their friends and relatives are.

 

According to Facebook policy, “Our default privacy settings limit the information displayed in your profile to your networks and other reasonable community limitations that we tell you about.”

 

The details could be viewed by any of the many millions of Facebook users around the world, but were swiftly removed once authorities were alerted by the newspaper’s enquiries.

 

“There were fears that the hugely embarrassing blunder could have compromised the safety of Sir John's family and friends,” the newspaper said.

 

Despite the availability of augmented privacy settings, sensitive information is easily shared through Facebook and other social networking outlets.

 

The Palo Alto (News - Alert), Calif.-based company’s chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, said that the changes don’t have anything to do with advertising or the information Facebook is going to make available to advertisers. Kelly could not be reached for immediate comment.