Social Media - What are your privacy risks?

Richmond, USA, 09/10/2012 / SubmitMyPR /

Risk Based Security announces the release of a new and free tool, MyPrivacyAudit. The potential privacy risks to social media users are staggering and yet relatively unknown to most people and organizations. "Our new service is designed to close the awareness gap and to equip users with a real sense of the risks they are taking," says Barry Kouns, Risk Based Security's CEO.

Whether purposefully or accidentally, many people share an enormous amount of private information on social media sites. MyPrivacyAudit was designed to help people and organizations better understand the risks associated with the information they share. For those individuals and businesses that use Twitter this free service will help them better appreciate the risks associated with information "over-sharing".

MyPrivacyAudit currently reports on the privacy risks associated with using Twitter by analyzing a user’s tweets and identifying if tweets are protected, if geo-location tags are enabled, if sensitive information has been shared, and if other sensitive information such as credit or debit card pictures have been posted.

“Since no rational person would purposely share self-damaging private information on a social network, users must suffer from either a “false expectancy of privacy” or a lack of understanding concerning the risks they open themselves up to. We believe that MyPrivacyAudit can help to raise individual awareness and reduce those risks,” says Kouns.

Although in some instances gaining the benefits of social media requires some risk taking, MyPrivacyAudit helps both individuals and businesses understand those risks and make informed decisions.

The initial focus of MyPrivacyAudit is to calculate the privacy risks associated with a user's behavior on Twitter, the company plans to expand the risk calculations to include Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace to name a few.

Please visit MyPrivacyAudit at http://www.myprivacyaudit.com/

About Risk Based Security, Inc.

Risk Based Security equips organizations with vulnerability intelligence, data breach analytics, risk management services, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 consulting, and on-demand security solutions to establish customized risk-based programs to address information security and compliance challenges. We provide clear guidance and ensure that organizations are able to implement the right security based on grounded data while making solutions affordable.

For more information, please visit http://www.riskbasdesecurity.com/ or call 855-RBS-RISK.