Facebook app brings privacy to social media

Amid growing concerns over Facebook's attitude towards privacy, developers are coming up with ever more inventive ways of letting users take control of the information they post on social networking sites.

The latest tool in the fight for internet security is called uProtect.it, a new application that prevents even Facebook from looking at what is being posted to the site, but makes it freely available to selected friends.

It encrypts posts put on Facebook (unless instructed not to), and directs anyone who wants to read the message to a link. If they too have downloaded the app, and are on the poster's 'safe' list, they can read the post by clicking on the link.

Although the process is somewhat unwieldy - users must sign in and cannot easily scroll through their friends' messages as each one is accessed by a different link - it does create what the man behind the idea, Michael Fertik, calls "an encrypted atmosphere on Facebook".

Fertik, whose company Reputation.com makes the uProtect.it app, even goes so far as to claim "Putin and Obama could have a conversation there and nobody but the two of them could know what they're saying".

However, like many apps on Facebook, uProtect.it itself accesses the personal information of the user, although Fertik is adamant his company does not sell, rent or share that data.

He told the Wall Street Journal: "Every day the crescendo of demand for privacy is growing. People are talking more seriously about privacy. I don't want to miss that window."

He also claims that the added security can aid people who live in oppressive regimes, where open dissent on sites like Facebook is not tolerated and can lead to repercussions, as it did for many in the aftermath of the uprisings in Iran after last year's elections.

"You want to help the guys in Tunisia?" he asked, referring to the recent protests in the north African state, in an interview with the Daily Beast. "Here's your tool."

And while uProtect.it gains popularity a similar piece of software, called X-pire, that allows users to control access to photos on the internet has been launched by a German company.

At present it only works for jpeg pictures on the browser Firefox, but the developers expect to expand its use. The paid-for programme encrypts pictures and only allows them to be accessed by approved viewers. After a certain time, or when the user's subscription ends, the picture will become inaccessible, even though it is technically still online.

The developers say that in the current age, it is difficult for people to manage the images they post on a variety of social media, but giving the pictures expiry dates means that they do not need to worry about them. ·