I am responding to the article “Facebook Finally Adds HTTPS Support” by Stan Schroeder. Almost every college student across the country has a Facebook; many of the prosepective students even used it to find their college roommate. The addition of HTTPS will allow college students to be safer, especially because many of them use the same WiFi network. Previously, Firesheep allowed a hacker to steal information from Facebook if the two users were on the same WiFi. Being on the same WiFi is a common occurrence in large lecture hall classes where most students have a laptop for notes and they have Facebook on in the background of their computer or are blatantly using Facebook during the lecture. Checking for HTTPS on other websites online should be a precaution before releasing any sensitive information such as credit cards or social security numbers. Large WiFi networks on campuses are extremely vulnerable to hacking like this.

HTTPS should be the first step for protecting your Facebook information, the next one would be to limit the amount of information you share with people who are not your friends. Many students try to change his or her Facebook name when applying for jobs or colleges. What a lot of people don’t know is that you can still be located on your old Facebook name. What students should do is make sure that they limit the access to pictures and statuses for people who they are not friends with, and double check the “visible to mutual friends” option too. That way, people who you are not friends with, or people who you may randomly have one friend with, will not be able to see your information. The best way to keep your Facebook clean is obviously not to post or tag yourself in questionable posts, but if you must, make sure its only available to you and your friends. Also, you can make photos available to only some of your friends (AKA not your parents), because we all know that your parents will not want to see you out on a Tuesday night in college.