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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Threats of Social Networking on Internet BY: SHAIKH KAMRAN SALIM


“I’ll catch you on face book tonight,” a student outside the class was talking to his friend on mobile phone. I was taken a back. For the first time I realized that face book has really become a household social forum.

The world of Internet has opened new avenues for the mankind. Web surfing is no longer left for just information gathering rather it has become more of socializing medium. Face book, Twitter and other social networks have quickly become an integral part of the online culture. These networks comes with some set of serious threat to one’s privacy.

Online information sharing through these networks makes you vulnerable to hackers busy in phising attacks. It is necessary that the users should think before they share informations. In an open communities like face book, you should eschew from posting things online that you may later regret. Such informations may go against you, so do not leave too many skeletons in your cupboard.

You should refrain from sharing your thoughts about your boss, teacher or any elder person. You never know one of them may be member of the same network. If they are not a part of your network and can’t see your posts directly but they may very well be connected to someone else in your network. Therefore, be careful and do not post anything that may embarrass you later.

Face book does provide privacy control that allows you to customize your information available to other viewers, so use it. I how social and open you are, is for you to decide. However, face book being a networking site designed for sharing information, many settings open by default. You may have notice advertisements that use your friend’s names or photos associated with them. Face book in particular has drawn some unwanted attention in connection with various privacy concerns.

A huge selection of Games and quizzes offered by face book are one of the most sought after commodities. You may have noticed that a notice pops up when you initiate a game or quiz that says interacting with the application require opening access to information, never allows the access to Continue. The access will let the application retrieve your profile information, photos, your friend’s info and other content. Be careful, the time that you think you are having fun may actually be an invitation to hackers.

Internet surfing for socializing may seen too attractive to the users but they don’t realize that they may sitting ducks to the attackers. For some users the internet may be a medium to broaden their social circle for professional gains or to locate old friends, whatever it may be, you can become a prey to the professional hackers. They can break into your private information like credit card details, money transfer, travelling details e.t.c. They can gain access to your face book account and hijack it. Face book does offer privacy controls. This can help you restricting the information sharing. Therefore use your right to “Privacy Setting” and enjoy surfing.

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