Privacy Risks for Users of Social Networks Sites

Assalamualaikum and good afternoon guy ;)

Are there any privacy risks associated with using social networking sites ? My answer is totally YES. When it comes to social network, privacy is one of the challenges. It is because Social Network Sites (SNS) are websites that allow users to upload information to a public profile, create a list of online friends, and browse the profiles of other users of the SNS. For example, Facebook.

See..!! The example above shows that our "information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations.”– Facebook Privacy Policy, April 2010

However, you can change the privacy setting as shown in the picture below on your Facebook setting so that not anyone can know your personal data in detail. Unless you do not want to have privacy or maybe you want to be contacted by a lot of people that you do not recognize at all.

A new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Experian’s ProtectMyID.com found that people are doing little to protect their personal information on social networks, opening them up to increased vulnerability for ID theft. 

Some highlights from the study include:

- About 65% of users don’t set high privacy or security settings in social media sites

- Over 90% of users don’t review a given Website’s privacy policy before engaging in use.

- About 40% share their physical home address through social media apps.  

*reference: www.webpronews.com


Another example, have you heard about  the case of Megan Meir ? This is example that shocked the United States of America and could be having severe implications for privacy in Social Network Sites.

Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl from St. Louis, Missouri, committed suicide just after a 16-year-old handsome MySpace friend told her “the world is a better place without you in it”. However, the 16-year-old boy was in fact a group of people who lived next door, and had created a fake profile. Lori Drew, the mother of a classmate of Megan, participated in this hoax. She got indicted for a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) on charge of conspiracy and three counts of computer breach, namely creating fictitious profiles, sending abusive messages and soliciting personal information from minors. For more information about this case, you can click on this link -> Megan Meir Cases. How sad this girl ? 

Megan Meier

So guys, be careful..!! Don't ever believe to unknown people and change your privacy setting so that your safety can be protected while using social networks.

Thank you for reading this entry.!:D