1 in 4 Facebook, MySpace and Bebo users reveal confidential details
By Dave Parrack
A new survey shows that despite continuous warnings to keep personal details safe online, many users are failing to do so. The biggest risk comes from social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo where an incredible 25% of people admit to posting confidential details on their profiles.
Get Safe Online, a British government-backed campaign group, questioned 2,000 adults over their Internet activities, and how secure those activities were. It found that 1 in 4 web users who are signed up to social networks have given away personal information in their profiles which could give identity fraudsters enough to strike.
Tony Neate, Managing Director of Get Safe Online, told Which:
“The popularity of social networking and other sites means that we are much more open about ourselves and our lives online.”
“Although some of these details may seem harmless, they actually provide rich pickings for criminals. Your date of birth and where you live is enough for someone to set up a credit card in your name.”
“So whilst most people wouldn’t give this information to a stranger in real life, they will happily post it online where people they don’t know can see it.”
The same survey also discovered that 51% of over 65s only ever use one password for every website they visit, even though that’s a basic online security mistake.
Cabinet Office minister Gillian Merron calmed fears of a rise in cases of identity theft online by saying:
“The risks we are highlighting today can be easily fixed and do not mean that people should stop using social networking sites and wireless networks.”
“People simply need to take a few basic steps and simple precautions which they can find by going to ‘getsafeonline.org’ to help keep themselves, their families and their businesses safe online.”
That’s all well and good, but how many people out there don’t even begin to think of the risks until it happens to them, or someone they know? Older people especially, while starting to embrace the new technology, seem to take online security for granted and assume it’ll never happen to them.
Social networking sites are rapidly becoming the number one target for online criminal gangs and hackers, after banks and businesses tightened up security measures as a matter of course.
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Stumble It!
November 29th, 2007
I found this site recently and it has a lot of safety features.
Here is the news article about this site:
Our-Social.com Offers a Safe, Family-Friendly Social Networking Alternative
Nov. 13, 2007 – At a loss for family-friendly online social networking? Searching for a Web-based community that’s easy to join and not just for younger people? Our-Social.com (http://www.our-social.com) offers a user-friendly environment free of profanity and pornographic material so that members can safely make new friends of all ages as well as connect with existing friends and family. As evidence of Our-Social.com’s commitment to extending a hand to everyone seeking a safe online community, membership is free.
“Our-Social is the clean alternative to the prominent social networking sites,” said founder Theresa Adams. The site’s word filter prevents members from being exposed to profanity and lewd or sexual comments – as well as racial slurs and other hate speech. To further ensure that the site remains clear of offensive material and is safe for all ages, Adams has all pictures, video and audio clips go through an approval process – which takes places within 24 hours of submission – before they are posted.
In addition, Our-Social discourages members from ever publicly displaying information such as their e-mail address, real name and geographical location. As another safety precaution, Our-Social does not have a chat area but does provide a members-only forum. The forum is moderated and has several different threads under the main categories of Family, Health, Faith, Pets and Social Stuff. In keeping with the site’s mission of providing a safe, clean environment, the forum does not allow images except for a profile picture. “The profile picture does not have to be an actual photo of a person,” said Adams. “Members can use an alternative image that fits their personality, such as a funny picture, cartoon, an animal picture or so on.”
Members have their own account pages, which serve as personalized control panels, where users can manage all aspects of their account. Management activities include editing profiles, setting privacy levels for the account, creating or editing articles, checking mail, inviting friends to join, sending out friendship requests and creating numerous picture, video and audio albums.
The albums (also called audio sets and video sets) can hold multiple photo, videos or audio files, and the titles of each appear on the creator’s profile page. Other site members can leave comments in the albums, and individual albums can be set to different privacy levels. That means while all members may be able to view a particular album, another album from the same person might only be accessible to members who have been designated as friends.