A PC World test found that some search sites had random details about co-workers' and acquaintances' college roommates and boyfriends from the 1980s, political donations, shopping preferences and musical tastes.
Social networking sites give a false sense of security and if left "open" to all can result in a lot of personal information being harvested (sometimes called "scraped") by criminals.
A recent Symantec study showed that 91% of Phishing attempts are now aimed at social networking sites (the top two are My Space and Facebook). Why? The personal data is there for easy pickings. Plus, people who join social networking sites tend to feel more "free" in their personal comments.
Another disturbing tidbit ... 23% of people succumb (are tricked by) social engineering attemps via Phishing emails. At a recent Information Security conference, a speaker admitted that he had been a victim too. His daughter had joined Facebook, soon had 300 "friends" (right!) and then her got an email from "his daughter" with a link to something neat "she" wanted him to check out. He did. His computer got attacked. The problem? Too trusting. Bad assumptions.
People get tempted to take risky actions when using social networking sites. Human nature plus the very essence of a social networking site make using it risky.
How much is your identity worth? Is is humany possible to not be a social networking lemming? Just say, "No" to joining social networking sites. You'll live to rejoice in that decision.
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