"Don't recommend anyone you might know." A few days ago, this topic resonated with many netizens on social platforms. In addition to receiving recommendation information from the platform, netizens find that they will be unconsciously recommended to others, and even the content they have collected and the things they have bought may be seen by others. The reporter evaluated a number of APPs and found that many platforms are enabled by default on the relevant options of "acquaintance recommendation", and the closing steps are often very cumbersome.
haunt
Whatever you buy, everything you see, your privacy is exposed, and you are not offended
"Originally, I wanted to have my own 'tree hole', and I could vent when I was under pressure, but I was still sold by the platform." As a newcomer in the workplace, Xiao Yang has always been cautious in his words and deeds in the company, and strives to create a reliable young persona. "But it's really tiring to hold it all the time, and there must be a time when it is released, and it is inconvenient to post it in the circle of friends, so I specially registered an account on other platforms."
Xiao Yang deliberately chose an unrecognizable name and uploaded a landscape photo as his avatar, "The non-mandatory information such as region, occupation, and school is empty, so avoid exposing yourself as much as possible." Here, Xiao Yang occasionally becomes addicted to anime as a two-dimensional enthusiast.
Until one day, a colleague asked Xiao Yang with a smile, "This is your account, right?" It's quite a contrast from usual! Only then did Xiao Yang know that the other party had discovered himself through the platform's recommendation of "people who may know", "It's really a large-scale 'social death' scene, and there is a feeling of 'dropping the vest', and I can't wait to find a crack in the ground to get in." ”
On the short video platform, Xiao Cheng also suffered embarrassment because of "acquaintance recommendation". "At the beginning, I was worried that no one knew me, so I posted some figure models that I was interested in." However, the seven aunts and eight aunts soon followed Xiao Cheng through recommendations, and they also came to watch and comment from time to time, counting him for not doing his job, which made him annoyed, "I just want to go online quietly for a while, not to recognize my relatives, why does the platform have to make its own claims?" ”
On the Internet, many people are also full of complaints about "acquaintance recommendation". "Family, colleagues, classmates, and even the ex who has been blocked may appear in the 'people you may know', and some relationships that are just 'chat-only' on WeChat also lead to passive exposure of the other side of yourself because of recommendations."
In addition to pushing acquaintance accounts, some platforms will also "post" shopping records, leaving users with no privacy at all and feeling deeply offended. On the black cat complaint platform, some consumers said that they had not opened the relevant functions, and they were opened in a daze. "If it weren't for someone making fun of what I bought, I would have been kept in the dark until now." "All the things I buy and comments are synchronized to Pinxiaoquan, and the friends of Pinxiaoquan are my WeChat friends, including colleagues, customers, family, and classmates, so what I buy, all the people I have added WeChat friends can see it."
Xiao Xu recently realized that his browsing history could also be made public at any time. "Sometimes liking a video just wants to make a mark, so that it is easy to find it afterwards, but after liking it, it will leave traces, and others can find out what I watched at a glance, and then judge me, this feeling of being spied on is very bad."
survey
Multi-platform is enabled by default, and it is not easy to turn it off
Obviously there is no active exposure, why is it still passive exposure? The reporter evaluated a number of APPs and found that the mystery often lies in the default opening of the settings.
Take an e-commerce platform as an example, you can see "Spell Circle" at the top of the home page, click "View Friend Dynamics", and select "Settings" in "My" at the top right of the page, you will find that the platform has turned on "Spell Circle" by default, and the spelling and evaluation dynamics will be automatically synchronized, and friends can be seen.
In the friend settings, "You can find me through friend recommendation", "You can find me through your address book", and "You can recommend friends to me" are all enabled by default. In the privacy settings, "Allow friends to view the range of dynamics" is "Last half a year" by default, and "Allow friends to view my Changpin products" is also turned on by default, which means that friends can see Changpin products on the user's personal homepage.
On a sharing platform, the system settings are also boring. Open the "Me" page at the top left of the three horizontal lines, select "Privacy Settings" from the "Settings", you can see that "My Collection" is "Public" by default. In the "way to find me", the platform will "don't recommend me to people you may know", "don't show me in the list of other people's relationships", "hide my notes on the "nearby" page", and "hide my notes in the "Picture Search" section" are all turned off by default, which means that users will be unconsciously exposed. In "Follow & Follower List", "Hide My Watchlist" and "Hide My Follower List" are also turned off by default.
"At first glance, it looks like it's closed, but when you think about it, it's the opposite of what you're used to." Xiao Yang is quite dissatisfied with such a setting, "It's like playing word games, which is easy to misunderstand and entangle people." ”
On the short video platform, there are also many doorways in the "privacy settings", and the closing steps are cumbersome, and the operation is not easy. Among them, the same-city display and online status are turned on by default, the work like information is "publicly visible" by default, and the "live broadcast you watch is recommended to friends", the display "friends have bought" tag and the favorite list are also turned on by default.
In "How to find me", "Appear publicly in other people's following and follower lists", "Recommend me to people you may know", "Can be searched by strangers", "Find me through shared links" are all enabled by default.
The "Follow & Followers List" also defaults to "Publicly Visible".
It's worth noting that "Recommend people I might know" is not only on by default, but you can't choose to turn it off, you can only "reduce referrals".
As for "why do you see friend recommendations", the explanation given by the platform is that "in 'friend recommendations' and related scenarios, we recommend friends or people you may be interested in based on the following information: 1. Contacts uploaded by you or others; 2. Your fans or the people you follow; 3. People with whom you have mutual friends/followers/fans; 4. The information that you and other users choose to display externally on your personal homepage (such as location, school, etc.) or the information that you actively set in relevant scenarios; 5. Interaction between you and other users; 6. Precise geographic location information authorized by you. ”
According to the platform's instructions, after turning off the "Recommend me to someone you may know" switch, the platform will still tell users who actively follow you that "you are following TA".
suggestion
The user shall be given the right to choose with prior consent
"Users' viewing records, shopping records, etc. are personal information, and if the platform wants to collect or use them, they must be clearly notified in advance and obtain the user's consent." Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the China Law Society, said that taking shopping records as an example, by grasping a person's consumption dynamics, you can roughly know what they are concerned about and what they need in the near future, and these should not be disclosed by default. Some consumer behaviors may involve personal personal privacy information, and should not be disclosed. Once this information is used by criminals, it can also cause security risks to users.
"If you want to make it public, the platform needs to make the rules clear, so that users know which of their actions will be seen by others and what consequences they will bear. Otherwise, users may be misled into believing that their actions are completely private. Chen Yinjiang proposed that whether it is from the perspective of the long-term development of the platform or from the perspective of respecting the privacy of users, the platform should put the right to choose and take the initiative in the hands of users, and let users decide for themselves what functions they need, rather than turning on by default and making choices for users. The algorithm itself should provide users with better services, and users have the right to choose to turn off the push of other users' information, and they can also refuse other users to obtain their own dynamic information. ”
Article 41 of the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that network operators shall follow the principles of legality, legitimacy and necessity in the collection and use of personal information, disclose the rules for collection and use, clearly indicate the purpose, method and scope of collection and use of information, and obtain the consent of the person being collected. Article 1035 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China also requires that the processing of personal information shall follow the principles of legality, legitimacy and necessity, and shall not be excessively processed, and the following conditions shall be met: the consent of the natural person or his guardian shall be obtained, except as otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations; rules for the disclosure of the processing of information; specify the purpose, manner and scope of the processing; It does not violate the provisions of laws, administrative regulations and the agreement between the two parties. The processing of personal information includes the collection, storage, use, processing, transmission, provision, and disclosure of personal information.
"It can be seen that when the platform makes 'acquaintance recommendations' or information sharing, it must have a sense of boundaries, and cannot push the user's personal information to others without the user's consent. In particular, some sensitive personal information should be cautious to avoid leaking or abusing it, endangering the personal and property safety of users, resulting in damage to their reputation or physical and mental health. Chen suggested that the platform should also clearly inform users of the way to turn off the relevant recommendation function, and optimize the operation process to make it more convenient and faster for users to use.