As the title states, I would be talking about issues with privacy and Social Networks.
All of you would be very familiar with Facebook, Friendster, Orkut, Myspace, hi5.
What is the similarity between these sites?
They are all social networks. People create accounts. Then from there, they would be adding friends and creating new ones. At this point of time there is not much of a problem. When it comes to adding in the information and the pictures, this is where the main problem starts.
Issues with Social Network sites:
I am sure you all must would be knowing that displaying your private information anywhere on the web is dangerous. In the same way, putting down your information in these kind of social network sites is dangerous too.
Why do I say it is dangerous is because you are giving off your privacy to other people in the assumption that hackers or even friends would not be able to misuse it. They can very well take your information such as address or handphone numbers and use it as their information. In some cases they can just take your photo by using the save image button, do some editing and paste it onto the web. A fine example would be:
She might have posted this on some social network site and somebody just took it and edited it to make fun.Facebok it self has quite a few loop holes event though it claims to be safe. I am saying this because I myself have experienced some problems like regualr spams from the application "Are you sexxy. " Also there are certain applications which force you to keep inviting your friends in order to actually get full usage of this application.
So are we totally protected. My say is that we are not. With the information gathered, people can just use them to create bank accounts with your credit card numbers. This does not apply to only social networks but other sites too.
So how can we minimize if not solve these problems?
- Do not post unimportant stuff such as your address and telephone numbers. I mean what is the point of giving all these information. You don't expect your friends to come down to your house for a surprise visit now do you.
- Limit the access to your social network profile.
To know how to reduce access you would have already seen it from Tee Mings blog.
In conclusion i would say that, by all means use social networks, just use them with forethought and consideration.
Learn from others by their experiences. You wouldn't want to suffer now would you?
Some links to other blogs:
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1931
http://onlinepredators.wordpress.com/
http://windcor.wordpress.com/
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=7499
http://www.firstmonday.org/ISSUES/issue11_9/barnes/
4 comments:
Some useful points here, but what other case studies are there? Share more on your personal experiences too.
i think what jai said is really true because you never know if your photos or personal info are being taken and misused. one day, you might come across your photos in other's website. and they are using it without your permission. Thus, always think twice before putting up photos or your own personal info.
Feel strongly to the subject of this message. I do not understand why people would reveal so much info about themselves..I myself have en counted a case, my friends last time cause of hating a teacher so much , opened an account in Friendster to blasphemies her..Well it takes some intelligence to know what to put and what not to put thou?
The thought that your privacy and personal information can be abused through the internet is indeed a scary thought.
That is why I still prefer to keep a low profile and use fake identities while navigating in the internet.
p.s. sorry for the late comment, jai
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