Does anyone remember the beginning's of the Internet era and the old electronic Bulletin Boards where people would post messages to topics and threads for other users to comment and share. These legacy (Well, GeoCities, Tripod) sites were the forerunners of current social networking sites and were mainly a mechanism for personal communications and were devoid of media, and robust linking technologies that allowed people to connect easier. Social Networking tools have now become a way of life for virtually all individuals who use the Internet - even if they aren't aware of it. Many sites that are used for simply sharing photos (like Flickr) are considered social networking tools due to their ability to link profiles and tag photos that allow users to reach other people and photos that have similar characteristics. If you like photos of ducks you can search for other duck photos and find users who take photos of ducks and post your duck photos you want to share... crazy duck people. Certain sites like Classmates.com have a large and diverse user base of people simply looking to connect with old school chum via the sharing of email addresses have been around for years and have recently begun to expand their capabilities to shift to a more traditional social site by allowing personalized pages and linking to blogs, websites and allowing customization of a user page. I know my dad uses classmates but if made the link between Facebook and Classmates he would scoff and assert there is a distinction, but is their really?
So what in little baby Jesus name could the problem with the social sites? Well I guess the biggest challenge is ensuring that your information isn't used against you - either professionally or privately. There is a certain amount of misplaced trust people place in these sites because of the thought that only the information I share will be seen by only those people I designate. This could be true to some extent if your wise enough to take advantage of security that may built into a program but isn't activated by default - i.e. you have to consciously decide what additional security you want on any of the social websites. Most people just quickly zoom through the fine print and want to get to the fun - only to discover that they should have left off their social security number and bank account when they asked for money from their parents for an extended spring break in Cancun (i.e. bail money) via their Facebook or twitter account. Now they're back in the states and their family and friends are being hit up for emergency money again becuase they've been robbed while on vacation in London - never mind that they've been banned from the UK since that notorious incident at the Coldplay concert at Wembley Stadium - again apologies to the Queen and that poor security guard with the very large hat that may have been used as a lavatory (they courts will decide this one). Point being that the information posted innocently was surreptitiously used to try to defraud family and friends. So how much information is too much. Well obviously some common sense should be used - don't post sensitive information about your life, including your address, phone number, bank accounts haha and even innocuous things like high school attended or workplace on a public profile - heck you probably shouldn't do it on a private profile because you never know who your friends will show it to. I think the important thing to remember is that your posting your information on the Internet - yes all of the Internet as far as I'm concerned. Yes, you can place some protections in place against your average yahoo or clown from high school but those savvy Nigerian/Russian scammers with large uncollected sums of money in Swiss numbered accounts will still find a way.
This brings us to the second part to the privacy discussion - unintended disclosure of work-related information on these sites. Often people reveal information that typically is quickly forgotten or disregarded in casual conversation with friends and family but when posted to a site where potential adversaries or competitive rivals may use the information to glean valuable intelligence. "Hey honey I'm going to be late to dinner because the Johnson case is probably going to take longer than I anticipated", or "Hey guys I'm going to be late for drinks because we think we have another great idea for the Nike advertising account"...this information doesn't appear to be damaging but in the right light it could reveal critical information that could prove to be a real advantage to competitors or rivals?
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You bring up an interesting point about our willingness to share too much personal information. I've heard a few stories about people who had their facebook or gmail accounts hacked, and then the hacker would message friends of the original user and ask for money.
ReplyDeleteWe really have to be extra cautious about that kind of thing these days. It's like a new breed of a Nigerian Scam, only with the Nigerian acting like they're someone you know. Scary stuff.