Disclaimer: Whatever is written below are my personal thoughts (some based on my own Facebook usage and MORE ;-) based on others usage pattern) on the security threats / issues concerning Social networking sites and I’m in no way pointing or targeting any particular person (though you might feel so as you read along).
A few Questions & thoughts to ponder upon and if you wish, to act upon .
1.Are you aware of the Privacy Settings of the Social Networking medium that you use?
If not, please do.
2.Did you know your news (anything and everything published by you) / status feeds can be read and viewed by most of the Toms Dicks and Harrys out there whom you have never met or may never wish to meet in your real life.
[In privacy settings of facebook, there is the option
“Post by Friends”which says “Control who can see posts by your friends on your profile”].
Now, isn’t this security feature actually loosening the security grip on the post made by your Friend .(And this friend can be you, for your friends).
3. Every other user on Social Networking site wants to know who is stalking them :).
Though their are tons of pages on facbook that claim to give you this information , let me tell you , the makers of Facebook are not in favor of this feature & hence not supoorted.
4.Do you ever take the permission of your friends / family before you make their snaps public? Don't you think we should ?
5.Are you amongst those who would never publicize your personal (meaning family) snaps but haven’t given the same thought when you publicized your best buddy’s snaps?
6.Are you amongst those who are horribly addicted to Farmville or Mafia wars etc? You should consider paying a visit to the shrink or at least make an earnest attempt to diversify your potential to some useful task.
7.Have you befriended all your (unknown/unseen) Farmville neighbours and added them to your friend list? Don’t be shocked if someday you come to know Osama Bin Laden is there in your friend list.
8.Are you amongst those who have got so hooked to Facebook or Orkut or XYZ that you have forgotten that one –to- one communication can be carried privately through other mediums like email or your cell phones? Still if you are interested in using facebook for the same “There is an option for sending Messages which are absolutely private.”
9.Public show of emotion has reached great heights where couples who stay under the same roof use social networking mediums for lovey-dovey conversations.
10.Then there are those who open a facebook account of their new born baby even before they open a bank account for their child (Not at all kidding).
11.Are you amongst those who see snaps of your friend of friends in your feeds and end up going through the whole album? (Human nature, can’t blame anyone).
12.Did you know all that applications that you use on facebook and publish the result on your wall are giving away a lot of your personal characteristic / nature or current state of your mind to umpteen people out there?
13.Did you know your status updates and the comments of your friends on them could reveal a lot of information about your personal day to day life? Would you want it to be that way?
Remember that there is no default categorization of friends and all (best, intermediate, not so close, remote) friends are under the same roof.
It’s very easy to know who is pregnant, who is getting married etc etc.
14.Your Walls , don't keep them open for the public . Build gates ("Posts By Me" settings) around them and only let in people you know (just like in real life).
15.Trust me, adding an option like receiving RSS feeds is very quick but removing it, is a long painful process.
16. Are you amongst those, who have a crush ;) on that person in your friend list & you end up on his/her wall everytime you see a news feed of that person on your wall.
17.Twitter : Don’t follow every other person on Twitter who gives a minute-to-minute update of what he/she is doing . Follow those who are using it as a medium for sharing information.
Btw, Did you know , you can lock your tweets?
I think, I have written quite a lot of negative points (not that it has ended, I am just living the rest as your homework ;-) ).
However, trust me; if you use social networking wisely you can use it to your advantage.
Personally, I feel it should be used as a medium for “Marketing / Advertising”.
Use it to market / advertise your
• Passions (implying Hobby(s) and NOT HUBBY(s))
• Skill sets and Talents.
• Product / Company.
It’s an innovative and new way of sharing knowledge with like minded peoples.
Use it for sharing awareness on Socio-economic causes.
Use it to stay in touch with your friends .Schoolmates , collegmates ,ex-colleagues all under one roof is simply a great thing , but , wisely , use the medium of interaction.
The only thing I would like to say is “Think twice before you upload that personal snap or put a status update about your day-to-day life. How PUBLIC do you want your PRIVATE life to be?”.
Lastly, if you think I have SPOKEN SENSE, please do spread the message behind this post using all possible medium of SOCIAL NETWORKING ;-).
Or read what the Experts have to say @ http://bit.ly/8Z9syU
p.s: For Software Developers : Microsoft has its SDK for Facebook (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee388574.aspx), so build your applications (Zoos and Farms and Mafias) ,make money & let those who are incapable of getting the right message across remain hooked to FaceBook ;-)
Btw , comments and feedbacks are welcomed :).
