Online Privacy: Is your information safe?

If you ask a friend, family member, or colleague if they have a social network website of any kind such as Facebook or Myspace, and their response is no, then obviously that person is telling a little white lie. Nowadays everyone depends on an online social network website for just about any situation. Since the Internet is being used a lot, different websites are expecting consumers to provide plenty of information about themselves including a photo for identification purposes. What people may or may not be aware of are the privacy issues that people are having that are leading to identity theft. Before social networks were discovered, it was impossible to find out details about a person. In today’s world, all you need is someone to provide you with a name or even a picture and the rest is history. No matter how you apply your privacy settings, I’m pretty sure that it’s still easy for someone to look up and view a persons information.

Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg said “people have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” but is that really true? Is he really speaking on behalf of everyone around the world? I’m not comfortable having my information exposed everywhere. I noticed that I have to keep up with my privacy settings on Facebook in order to keep my pictures and information safe, so that I’m the only person who could see it other than my friends that I trust. The problem is that not everyone has the time to continually update their privacy settings. It should be a onetime deal. I get nervous every time I go on a website that asks me to provide more information than I actually want to give. I’m also always questioning if others could see my information even though I have my privacy settings set on high, if that’s even good enough.There are intelligent individuals out there such as hackers that have no mercy and will find a way to tamper with a persons information.

The question is, is the information that you provide online really safe and being protected from others? Or are people confiding too much on the little lock on the side of the website and web browser? That is the question.


Sources:

http://www.crn.com/news/security/222300279/facebooks-zuckerberg-face-it-no-one-wants-online-privacy-anymore.htm

www.facebook.com

Competition between Social Networks: Myspace or Facebook?

Did you lose touch with an old friend from High School or College? Do you want to catch up with friends or family members who live in another state who you haven’t spoken to in a while? The most convenient way to grant your wishes is to remain in contact with them through a social network. If you asked someone for advice on which social network to use, the answer you were given a few years ago was probably Myspace. Times have changed since Facebook has come into the picture. If you’re in any public area and happen to listen in on a group of teenagers you’re bound to hear the phrase “Facebook me” being exchanged. The phrase “Facebook me” has become the new way to ask a person to look them up online to keep in contact with them.

The social networking website Myspace was once a high ranked popular website, to the point where that’s all anyone talked about. Myspace was previously classified as the go to social networking website for people of all ages who were interested in checking out their friends pictures, and be able to leave them a comment among other things. If a person asked their friend or colleague for their information to look them up on Myspace and he or she replied with the answer “I don’t have a Myspace”, that person would be looked at with an awkward stare. People say that the next best thing will come out over time and will make consumers forget about the previous outdated product or in this case a website that may have been favorable in the past. The situation with social networks is that anyone can feed off of someone else’s ideas and make a better website that will attract fans and that’s what happened when the social networking site Facebook was launched.

I agree that Myspace can gain their popularity again by joining forces with their competitors like Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking websites. This collaboration will hopefully get the previous users who converted over to Facebook, back to visiting Myspace’s website. There’s a phrase that says “if you can’t beat them, join them” and I believe that is so true. Aren’t social networking websites about sharing and collaborating? It’s incredible how much could be conquered with the help of others. I believe one of the reasons why users have switched from Myspace to Facebook is the fact that Facebook has more of a professional layout to their page. It’s also a simple user friendly environment to work on, and that’s the reason why I switched to using Facebook. In reality, people don’t like things being complicated and with the changes that Myspace has made to their page, trying to access any part of their website is confusing and takes up most of a person’s time. The last time I logged on to my Myspace page I was lost, didn’t know where to go, and that’s why I stopped going on to their website. In order for Myspace to boost back their popularity, they should work on changing the layout of their page and make their website user friendly. There are a lot of factors that could disillusion a person from going back to Myspace, so their goal should be to examine what the people want and start from there.

Why did you choose Facebook over Myspace?

Sources:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/678359/is_myspace_losing_popularity.html

http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2010/05/10/why-facebook-is-better-than-myspace/

http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/heated-rivalries/facebook-vs-myspace.html