How to Be Safe on Social Networking Sites?

By: Arpan Mondal on 01:48

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Would you tell a complete stranger all about your family, work, love life, hobbies and interests? And give them some personal photos to look at too? Most people approached on the street would probably answer ‘no’ to the above questions. But on the Internet, that’s exactly what millions of us are doing on the hugely popular social networking sites and chat rooms. Online social networks are fun and hip, but they also present a major security concern for Internet users.

Today your online well being has a direct impact on the rest of your life. So enjoy the social networking sites while also keeping security in mind. That way you are protecting your computer, money and reputation, as well as your family and friends.

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   Don’t reveal too much: Each web site provides different levels of privacy settings to control access to your profile page and your interaction with others. Identity theft is a major industry on the Internet and information extracted from social networking sites is used by criminals to spam e-mails and for targeted attacks on specific individuals and companies, using sophisticated social engineering techniques.
   
   

   
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   Beware of spam messages: It could be an e-mail pretending to be from someone you know, addressing you by your first name and mentioning the names of your children. It doesn’t look like a spam message and it can trick you into revealing even more sensitive information. Similar methods are also used to gain financial information from businesses.
   
   

   
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   Educate yourself: As social networking sites and chat rooms are especially attractive to children and teenagers, it is essential that parents educate them about safe online behavior and keep tabs on what they are doing online.
   
   

   
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   Maintain a good reputation: It’s worth remembering that whatever you post on your profile page, or other community forum, remains in the public sphere long after you log out of the web site. This includes the crazy stuff and wild photos that you posted on Facebook but decided to delete ten minutes later because it suddenly seemed like a bad idea. The problem is that you can’t really retract it. Once it’s out there on the Web, you have little control over who copies the material, where it is used and how widely it gets distributed.