It’s one of the creepiest things you can experience
on Facebook.
You stumble across the profile of “another” user
who appears to have stolen the details of your life – lock, stock and barrel.
They use one of your photographs as a profile
picture, have stolen your name, your place of work and where you live. Maybe
they have even managed to connect with some of your friends.
Their reasons for impersonating you may be complex
– it could be that they are interested in stalking and harassing you,
attempting to crowbar personal information out of your online friends, or wish
to besmirch your character by posting messages under your name that are
untruthful and potentially damaging to your career, friendships and family
life.
Whatever the reason, it is the kind of attention
that nobody wants.
And yet, judging by the emails I have received in
the past from victimised Facebook users, it is not that uncommon.
Take, for instance, the case of Kantavadee
Nisanpayu, a 33-year-old Thai civil servant. As Nisanpayu described to the local media last year, she had
the ghastly experience of a stranger creating a fake profile in her name, and
posting messages with her phone number, claiming she was a prostitute looking
for new clients.
Thankfully, Facebook appears to be waking up to the
problem.
In an interview with Mashable, Facebook’s Head
of Global Safety Antigone Davis describes how the social network is beginning
to alert on cloned accounts being used to impersonate innocent Facebook users:
“We heard feedback prior to the roundtables and
also at the roundtables that this was a point of concern for women. And it’s a
real point of concern for some women in certain regions of the world where it
[impersonation] may have certain cultural or social ramifications.”
Mashable explains
that a new tool alerts Facebook’s safety team to accounts that are using the
same names and photographs, raising an alarm that details may have been stolen:
When Facebook detects that another user may be
impersonating you, it will send an alert notifying you about the profile.
You’ll then be prompted to identify if the profile in question is impersonating
you by using your personal information, or if it belongs to someone else who is
not impersonating you.
Questionable accounts will then be manually
reviewed by Facebook staff. One assumes that Facebook would determine which
account was likely to be real and which was the impersonator by examining the
profile’s creation date, amongst other information.
The safety feature, which is said to have been in
development since last November, is now live on Facebook for 75% of the world.
In my opinion, anything which makes it easier for
victims to report abuse on Facebook has to be a good thing – and I hope the
social network puts sufficient resource into closing down offending accounts
quickly so damage can be kept to a minimum.