Don't be Embarrassed by this Facebook App! Be Careful with Socialcam!
One of the biggest concerns with Facebook has always been privacy. And one area that every Facebook user should be focusing their privacy concerns towards is Facebook apps. To be fair, most Facebook apps are not bad and many even provide useful services. I use a few Facebook apps for business purposes such as Mailchimp, YouTube, and Sweepstakes. But there are also a few apps that have privacy concerns associated with them.
One such app is called Socialcam. In fact, this may be called the “bad egg” of apps, and there are a variety of reasons for it. First, many of the videos have shocking content as well as shocking titles. As suspected, sometimes the title is more shocking than the actual content. Second, this app posts everything that you “click” right on your Facebook newsfeed. In other words, if you watch a video than all your friends are going to know about it!
I recently had friends watch videos entitled “Raging Embarrassment”, “What Girls really do when they Fight with Boyfriends”, and a racier video involving a news anchor from the Fox News Network. Socialcam is filled with videos like these, and they let all your friends know each time you watch one of them!
After reading this you may want to completely delete this Facebook app. But you can keep Socialcam and turn off the “auto sharing”. This is done by clicking on the Socialcam app located on the left-hand column of your Facebook page. Then choose settings (in the upper right hand corner) and unclick both “auto sharing” boxes. Then make sure to save your changes at the bottom of the page. The problem seems to arise though when people watch a Socialcam video on their smartphone. Socialcam automatically changes your settings back to “auto share” after watching that video on your phone.
According to CNET News, Socialcam is closing the loophole that enables videos to be shared without the users’ knowledge, but I would still encourage caution as I saw a questionable Socialcam video being shared as late as Friday.
Socialcam isn’t the only app that shares like this. Spotify shares music that you listen to, while the Washington Post Reader shares articles that you have read. While these apps don’t seem as salacious, I still prefer to only share what I intended to share with my friends!
W.J. Wheeler Insurance is making a commitment to use social media not only to benefit our company, but also the community at large. We have recently been recognized nationally for our digital innovation, and locally we have been a panelist at a Social Media roundtable discussion. If you would like more information on how Maine insurance is using Social Media in the Oxford Hills area, please e-mail Tim at timd@wjwheeler.com
Tim Dillmuth
www.twitter.com/timdillmuth
