200+ Facebook Groups Have Been Hijacked By "Control Your Info"

by amyellensoden | November 11, 2009 at 09:47 am

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As of yesterday, 286 Facebook groups have been hijacked by a team called Control Your Info. The group's aim is to point out the administrative flaws associated with Facebook groups, or supposed lack thereof. Control Your Info hacks groups that no longer have any admins running them and alters the nature of the group's subject matter.

This kind of accessibility poses many threats to individual privacy on Facebook as these hackers can access user information, send out messages, and alter the subject matter of the group. A Facebook Twilight fan group and a high school football team's personal group are just two examples of groups that have been taken over by Control Your Info.

"Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group," the message reads. "This means we control a certain part of the information about you on Facebook. If we wanted we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severly [sic]."

Thus far, Facebook has denied that there is any threat to personal security even with this going on. They counter that personal information cannot be accessed by admins of a Facebook group, and that other group members have the opportunity to step up and assume administration of any group they're in. A spokesperson for Facebook suggests that users can take control of the situation themselves:

Group administrators have no access to confidential information and group members can leave a group at any time. For small groups, administrators can simply edit a group name or info, moderate discussion, and message group members. The names of large groups cannot be changed nor can anyone message all members. In the rare instances when we find that a group has been changed inappropriately, we will disable the group, which is the action we plan for these groups.

Control Your Info claim that their initiatives are for the purpose of reminding users of the importance of protecting themselves on social networking sites where access by strangers can occur easily.

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