Backfiring on Social Networking Sites

I located the scholarly article, Privacy concerns and identity in online social networks
by Hanna Krasnov. I found this article by searching "identity, safety and privacy" through their scholarly article search. I was able to find that it was a scholarly article because it was listed on Google database and it was also peer reviewed. It also included a detailed list of references following the article.

In this article they point out the basically what the title exhibits, the privacy among social network sites. The article explains that because of many feelings of betrayal by their users that many users will start to diminish their usage among the sites. The trend can hold a negative impact among the social networks. They explain that many of the users may start to typically withhold the information they put on the internet etc. Krasnov also explains how the networking sites may respond to this by taking away the concerns that many users may have.  The article also includes several pictorial representations of their findings to explain their views.

Overall, the article does a good job conveying a rhetorical message. They explain why they are sharing the ideas they have and support them with supplemental information that can help the reader understand where they are coming from. The author also explains how they feel that social networking sites are indeed betraying their users and how this will have a negative impact on the sites themselves.

Don't Play Victim!

Ever use a credit card to make online purchases? Opened an email link that when in fact you had no idea who the sender was? Have you ever entered a password in an insecure part of the internet? If you answered yes to any of these questions you are putting yourself at an enormous risk for many online scams, hackers and phishers.


Phishing is when you receive an email that actually looks legit, and is usually from a well known company, and will usually say something like "your password has expired--click here to update it", these emails are very clever and will actually use the companies logo. They actually look very authentic, and the recipient should probably NEVER open links from these senders even if it looks real. The sites that are linked to in these email are also usually clones of the real sites, they try to trick you into entering your user name and password (as you think your at the real site), once entered they now have your log in details and can use your account as they please, if its an ebay account they can bid for things in your name, if its paypal, its certain that in the near future you will be receiving an unexpected bill.

You should never be asked for your password. Respectable websites and many businesses never should ask for your password. Many respect the fact the rule of a password and its intention for only YOU to know it. 
It does not just stop at passwords but includes other personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account info and PIN numbers.

If you have even been scammed into giving out account details, passwords or other personal information the first thing you should do is contact your banks so that they can freeze your account, then contact the website who owns the accounts that you just got hijacked. Then you should probably scan your computer for any viruses and change all the passwords you have.

Its better to be safe then sorry, these people need to be stopped! Make sure you aren't a victim to these horrendous acts.

Protecting or Sharing, Are You Aware Of Your Settings?

Everyone exposes their information and different views on ideas through their postings on the internet. Some of the popular sites where these land on are the ever so popular Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Cortright, D 2009.

Many of Facebook and Twitter users are not fully aware of their privacy settings. Many users are sharing information every second, through pictures, tweets, postings, and status updates. Through a social media research at Microsoft Research New England, Danah Boyn, shows that many people only feel like their privacy has been violated when they have lost all control of their personal information.

Source:Flickr, 2008.

According to Facebook TRUSTe (2010), Facebook creates privacy policies and guidelines to help protect many users information.I personally don't think the privacy given to the users is very sufficient. This definitely doesn't do justice because although many feel this same way, they continue to use the social networking sites. Facebook seems to keep making adjustments to help to improve and deal with the privacy issues.

source: Flickr, 2011

These improvements allow users to either allow their information to be viewed by others or in a more secure aspect and only visible to a select group. Facebook predicted that the number of users would decrease, but it seems as if it was otherwise, numbers increased. I believe that the issue of privacy comes from the users lack of knowledge of the people who use these networking sites. Some of them do not even notice or care about the privacy issues. Many of the Facebook users are publishing their comments, ideas, and posting pictures without checking to see if they have establish the privacy settings that they desire. When users found out their information can be found anywhere on the internet, they started to worry. So, I think, we cannot just get upset with these social networking sites if we have never done anything to help make our sites more secure. All in all, the privacy policy is already provided. It is now dependent on the users whether want to keep their information protected or shared.


Refrences:

Cortright, D 2009, Cleansing my Facebook Profile, http://www.kpao.org/blog/2009/12/09/facebook-privacy.jpg

Facebook TRUSTe (2010), Facebook’s Privacy Policy, viewed 15 June 2010, http://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Flicker 2007, Facebook Privacy Setting, http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1045/795842899_5e126db289.jpg

Franzese, Greg 2009, Facebook Privacy, viewed 16 June 2010, http://www.reputationdefenderblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/facebook-privacy.jpg

Introduction: Privacy

Privacy is one of those many topics that come to mind to many Internet users whether it is signing up for a social media page or giving out personal information when making a purchase online. For me, I believe privacy among many social media sites are taken for granted, which can often lead to humiliation, or even cyber bullying. I believe as Internet users we should take a certain value into our privacy and create restrictions for ourselves, to help prevent certain fiascos from happening. Many can and will argue that the Internet did kill privacy. In my opinion, I believe it did. Many felt that by providing the internet with such private information they are being” friendly” on facebook or twitter, or “trying” to meet new friends.  This can be both true and false, yes you are meet new friends but are these strangers really your “friends” or are they out there to find ways to humiliate or even possibly cause harm to you? These are questions that I ask myself before joining social networks. I also tend to have extreme regard to who I allow to have access to my pages, which can see my pictures, wall post, and most importantly whom I allow to be my “ friend”.