Facebook’s latest move could be an indication of how they plan to react. Facebook has announced a revolutionary new feature on its website: Graph Search. Though not a step into the realms of fully-fledged search engines, this certainly constitutes the early stages of a challenge. While a Google search pulls information from relevant websites (a travel query will bring up holiday reviews, hotel comparison sites and country guides), Facebook’s Graph Search scours for relevant information in your network (friends who went to Barcelona, where they stayed, what bars they took the most photos in).
Already, forums have been lit up by intrigued comments as well as online security and privacy concerns. On the surface, the move is a masterstroke - Facebook are taking the fight to Google from the safety of their own backyard. What worries many of Facebook’s one billion users, however, is their online security. Even the most diligent user will now find themselves cropping up in searches because of a single tagged photo from that restaurant, or a throwaway status about that airport lounge. As a result, the function may make it easier than ever before for scammers to assess individuals’ habits and exploit them.
So, how can we avoid this without going cold turkey from Facebook? Despite fraudsters being able to track an individual down on Facebook, it’s actually the subsequent online user behaviour, such as online shopping, that will be more eagerly spied on.
Using a VPN connection is a good way to help protect your online activity outside your social network. Luckily, this is as easy to do as de-tagging an unflattering party photo. There are a range of online security providers, offering affordable, anonymous VPN services. By channelling your online activity through a VPN connection, hackers will find it more difficult.
Top 5 VPN Service:
| Name of the Provider | |
| Hide My Ass | |
| Strong VPN | |
| Switch VPN | |
| Pure VPN | |
| IPVanish VPN |
