Should you lie on Facebook? [VIDEO]

Graham cluley
Graham Cluley
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There’s something of a hoo-hah in the world of British politics today, after a senior government official advised users of social networks such as Facebook on how to protect their privacy.

Nothing controversial there, you might think. Until you realise that the advice from Andy Smith, an internet security chief at the Cabinet Office, was that you should lie about your real name and date of birth.

The BBC reports, that Smith told a parliamentary internet conference that providing fake details to social networking sites was:

“..a very sensible thing to do.. When you put information on the internet do not use your real name, your real date of birth. When you are putting information on social networking sites don’t put real combinations of information, because it can be used against you.”

Opposition Labour MP Helen Goodman told the BBC…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.

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