Researchers at Indiana University also published a study last year showing how they ''scraped'' information from students' social network profiles. Posing as people's friends, they then used the information to fool the students into providing their university ID and password on a bogus external Web site.
Be alert, be safe!
Jayesh Mansukhani, an Internet expert from tech2.com , believes that even seasoned surfers on the web may commit elementary mistakes.
He gives some simple safeguards all netizens must follow, while on social networking sites -
- While registering for a website, ask yourself, is it absolutely necessary to do so? Many websites don't force users to register, but we may end up registering out of habit.
- NEVER use the user name and password of your personal email account or worse still, your bank account anywhere on social networking sites. It may be easier to remember one password, but it's absolutely unsafe.
- Before ticking 'I accept' to the 'Terms and conditions' of a social networking website, do go through the terms and conditions, especially regarding safety and privacy. Unless you read the fine print, you won't know possible repercussions.
- Fill in only the details necessary for your friends to identify you. There is no need to give your complete bio-data and / or your wherebouts.
- Pay attention to your status message. It may be visible to all. Don't give away your plans for the weekend or your mood in the status message. For example, saying 'In Goa this weekend' in your status message is unnecessary information that can be misused.
- Before accepting any application and sending it to your friends, check the details. If the creator of the application isn't known or the conditions are not sounding right, go with your instinct and reject it, no matter how 'fun' it may sound.
- If you are getting any SPAM in your message box on social networking sites, report it immediately.
- NEVER assume privacy on the Internet, even if you are at the highest available level of privacy settings. Be careful when you post messages, scraps and links on the 'walls'.
Whether the profile is private or not, users should limit the information they post, said Tom Jagatic, one of the researchers and now a senior information technology consultant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
It's good advice, says Jeremy Miller, a fraud investigator based in Nashville, Tennessee, but he wonders how many will heed it. He uses MySpace and sees people who routinely list everything from their income to phone numbers on their profiles and don't even bother to make their profiles private.
''It's kind of a status symbol, so privacy takes a back seat,'' says Miller, who works for Kroll Inc., a risk management consulting firm. ''It's much like people saying you shouldn't carry your Social Security card around in your wallet.
''But a lot of people still do it.''
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