Facebook has announced a new account recovery feature called Trusted Contacts. An enhancement to the existing Trusted Friends feature they first started testing in 2011, Trusted Contacts allows users to identify people they trust from within the security settings of their account who are authorized to assist in account recovery.
Users are allowed to choose 3 to 5 people from their friends list, and after enabling this feature, if you are ever locked out of your account and need to regain access your friends can assist you. After collecting three separate security codes from your friends, you can input them into Facebook to recover your account.
The Trusted Contacts method is certainly more secure than relying on recovery questions that are typically easily susceptible to social engineering.
Facebook says that good trusted contacts are:
- People you trust, like friends you'd give a spare key to your house.
- People you can reach without using Facebook, ideally over the phone or in person, since you'll need to contact them when you can't log in.
This feature sounds great to me in my present circumstance, but I can imagine more than one scenario for abuse. Call me a cynic, but high school is rife with kids who would readily dig around in each other's Facebook accounts if they had access. Be sure not to upset all your trusted contacts simultaneously, lest they pool their codes and have their way with your account.
Will you use the new Trusted Contacts feature?