It’s a pretty scary time if you’re a resident of Afghanistan. The ongoing Taliban takeover of the country as America’s armed forces leave has created issues for many, including social media companies like Facebook, but there are at least a few that the company can solve.
One of those is user privacy. In a country controlled by the Taliban, having the wrong information about yourself publicly available could potentially prove rather hazardous, which is why the social network has launched a new tool in that region.
Facebook finally does something that protects privacy
4/ We’ve launched a one-click tool for people in Afghanistan to quickly lock down their account. When their profile is locked, people who aren’t their friends can’t download or share their profile photo or see posts on their timeline. pic.twitter.com/pUANh5uBgn
— Nathaniel Gleicher @ngleicher@infosec.exchange (@ngleicher) August 19, 2021
Facebook’s head of Security Policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, speaking on Twitter, explained that the company has a few initiatives in place to try and ensure user privacy in the region. One of those is an online tool that locks down a user’s profile so nobody besides people on their friend list can access any information. It also prevents profile pictures from being downloaded or shared.
This isn’t a perfect solution (it can’t account for screenshots, after all), but it does prevent those outside of a person’s immediate circle from finding out they’re an atheist or are in (or support) the various romantic relationships that might cause… issues… in Afghanistan.
To mitigate matters further, the social network is also temporarily hiding friends lists in the country, and is serving pop-up messages on Instagram advising users how to protect their accounts. Insta won’t be getting a one-click lockdown tool, according to Gleicher.
Facebook users who have friends in the region can also do their part to help, by tightening up parts of their profile settings. Much of it you’ll already be familiar with, but it doesn’t hurt to see if there’s anything more you can do.
Source: via Engadget