Risks with Social Networks
// August 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // Rants
Many of us are already familiar with social networks. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are among the many familiar names in the web-space today. Social networking has increased sharply in popularity in the past few years. Undeniably, these sites have helped their users in many ways. They can be used for professional networking, marketing, job searching or just for friends and family interacting.
However, typical PC users may not have realized the risks they are putting on themselves, families and friends when they make a post or update to their social profiles. I’ll be using Facebook as an example in this entry but to make it clear, I have nothing against Facebook. In fact, I’m an avid user.
In Facebook, there are three main features that you’d use almost everyday; Add a friend, update your status and run 3rd party applications such as games and quizzes. We’ll take a look at each of these features.
Adding a Friend
A friend is an individual on the Facebook network whom you assigned permission to view various details of your personal information such as date of birth, address, web address, groups, comments, photos and list of your other friends.
So what’s the problem with adding friends? After all, Facebook is about meeting and connecting to friends. In fact, adding a friend is the first step to social networking.
Let’s create a scenario here. You received a friend invitation from someone called Cynthia when you log into your Facebook account. Upon checking, you found that Cynthia is a friend from your elementary school who had found you through one of your mutual friends’ “Friends” list. So, without a second thought you click the [Accept] button and added her. Now, you knew that by adding her, you’ve given her access to all your personal information and vice-versa.
What you may not have realized is, you have just exposed yourself to strangers, kidnappers, robbers and conmen. “But how?”, you’d ask. Unknown to you, Cynthia may have added strangers to her “Friends” list. Many applications and games have virtual teams and she may have added her team members as friends. Bad intention individuals often use these application to lure victims into adding them so they can gain access to a larger pool of targets.
Updating your status
I don’t deny this: I like to broadcast my status. I use Twitter a lot and with a browser addon, this will update my Facebook status as well. It’s a fun and easy to share information and experience to my family and friends. Starbucks giving discount? Twitter it. There is a free gift-away from a local radio station? Twitter it. Bumped into a hot celebrity on your way to lunch? Twitter it!
Here are some status update examples from my friends:
[Friend A] is bowling.
[Friend B] tired…after work and pub.
[Friend C] is off to Singapore tomorrow!!!
These status updates look harmless enough but [Friend C] might have just captured some attention. Telling the world that he’s not going to be home the next day is like hanging a sign in front of your house saying it’s empty.
3rd party application and games
What makes Facebook interesting and fun is the amount of application and games that are built on its platform. FarmVille, Restaurant, 10 Things You Do Not Know About Me, How Well You Know [Name Here], just to name a few, are applications that you allowed to data mine your profile information the moment you added them to your Facebook account.
But that’s not all, a lot of us have a habit of using the same username and password for many of our logins. This can terribly put our security at risk. As a rule of thumb, never put the same login credentials for your confidential accounts and these 3rd party applications or games. We do not know who are the people behind them and Facebook are not responsible for any identity theft or loss.
Summary
As a summary, social-networking opens up a whole new window to a sea of opportunities and fun but without careful thought, it can seriously put, not only ourselves, but the people we know as well, to serious risks.
Side Note: Love this song, Wonderful by Everclear. It’s old but still wonderful.
