“Privacy is Dead, and Social Media holds the Smoking Gun”

Pete Cashmore is the founder and CEO of Mashable, an award-winning site and one of the largest and most popular destinations for digital, social media, and technology news and information with more than 20 million unique visitors per month. Mashable has been named a must-read site by both Fast Company and PC Magazine and is ranked as the most influential media outlet by Klout. Pete founded Mashable in 2005 as a blog focused on up-to-the-minute news on social networks and digital trends. Since then, Mashable quickly grew to be one of the top 10 and most profitable blogs in the world. Pete was named one of Ad Age’s 2011 influences, a Time Magazine 100 in 2010, and a Forbes magazine web celeb 25. He was also named a Briton of the year by the Telegraph in 2010. Pete is a World Economic Forum 2011 Young Global Leader.

The famous quote by Pete Cashmore, “Privacy is dead, and social media holds the smoking gun” is a very precise and accurate statement. There are both positive and negative feelings about how personal information gets caught up in the World Wide Web? Is privacy really dead? Most of us would declare that it is. This is partly because of the power of networks, and their ability to leverage your private information for personal gain and/or amusement.

I definitely agree that you should not say anything online that you would not want the world to know about. Although many social network users feel that privacy settings provide security for personal information on the websites, the users must be cautious regarding the information they post on the websites. Such information could lead to the loss of an occupation and could even damage one’s reputation. People are re-connecting with family and friends all over the world and are able to view and access personal information via social network sites.  Social media is also regarded as a popularity tool that allows people to emulate the celebrity culture we are immersed in. We can all become micro-celebrities who capture attention and influence on a much smaller scale. The fear is that as this starts to become more and more prevalent, discarding privacy will become compulsory.

Facebook is an open vault for the robbers to steal valuable possessions. Personal information such as employer, residence, and family should be avoided because hackers can impersonate a user for money. In addition, personal information can lead to theft of a Social Security Number, which is the security for monetary transactions. In fact, hackers can steal Social Security Numbers based on residence information. No matter how safe a user might think their profile on a social network is, it is best to stop publishing personal information on the websites for the sake of privacy. Hackers crave for information, crave for money, and crave power. Therefore, it is essential for users to protect themselves from inevitable dangers.

CNN Story about Online Privacy

Another important consequence of social network privacy is the extent to which the networks can damage self-esteem. Although a person can delete a post, certain comments can hurt another person emotionally. In a True crime report article published on January 28, 2010, the school superintendent Gus Sayer said, “Apparently the young woman had been subjected to taunting from her classmates, mostly through the Facebook,'' regarding the suicide of 15 year old Phoebe Prince.  There has been a suicide climb for teenagers because of  the increasing harassment over social networks now days. With this in mind, it is vital to stop disparaging posts on social networks in order to deter such tragic incidents in the future. Tragic incidents have become a norm to the cyber society. Although many social network users feel that their personal information on the websites remains secured, it is vital to stop publishing private information to deter tragic events.

"Teen Cyber-Bullied to Death"?

 

In conclusion, the privacy of the information, which is shared by many young people and adults on the Internet, is not very secure. People are cautioned to evaluate the content of information that they share before they make their profiles public, in order to protect their privacy. We have to be cautious of the information we post on our profiles. We often hear people say,  "think about what you say". In this case we have to think about what we post, or tweet or even click. Try to use common sense when accessing social networks, think about long-term consequences. Would this video or that picture come back to bite me one day! Try to be sensitive to others and their feelings. Try not to post rude comments. If you have something negative to say, you can simply message the information privately so the whole world does not need to hear about it. Last but not least, try to protect your identity. Internet predator and on-line hackers are always waiting near by.


HERE IS A PODCAST ABOUT - "BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU SAY ONLINE"
http://www.podcast.com/Business/I-476263.htm

This is what the “Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada” had to say about Social Networking.

"Social networking sites have become increasingly popular among Canadian Internet users. According to a poll by TNS Canadian Facts, a Canadian marketing and social research firm, online teens and young adults are the heaviest users of social networking sites, with 83% of 13-17 year old and 74% of 18-29 year old having visited at least one such site. Six in 10 people in their 30s have visited at least one social networking site and 45% of those in their 40s have done so. From our point of view as privacy advocates, a lot of online users do not take the time to really read and understand the user agreements required by all social networks. As online media consumers, we are used to “clicking” a box and ignoring the text inside. It’s becoming obvious that a lot of Canadians - and others - are signing over their privacy rights to these companies in exchange for access to increasingly popular social networks. This is a choice Canadians can make, but we would hope that people would take a minute to think about their choices - and how much information they end up handing over to corporations, advertisers and marketing companies".

Tips for social networking safety from Microsoft.com

·11 tips for social networking safety

Use caution when you click links that you receive in messages from your friends on your social website. Treat links in messages on these sites as you would links in email messages. (For more information, see Approach links in email with caution and Click Fraud: Cyber criminals want you to 'like' it.)

Know what you've posted about yourself. A common way that hackers break into financial or other accounts is by clicking the "Forgot your password?" link on the account login page. To break into your account, they search for the answers to your security questions, such as your birthday, home town, high school class, or mother's middle name. If the site allows, make up your own password questions, and don't draw them from material anyone could find with a quick search. For more information, see:

o   What was the name of your first pet?

o   What is screen scraping?

o   Take charge of your online reputation

Don't trust that a message is really from who it says it's from. Hackers can break into accounts and send messages that look like they're from your friends, but aren't. If you suspect that a message is fraudulent, use an alternate method to contact your friend to find out. This includes invitations to join new social networks. For more information, see Scammers exploit Facebook friendships.

To avoid giving away email addresses of your friends, do not allow social networking services to scan your email address book. When you join a new social network, you might receive an offer to enter your email address and password to find out if your contacts are on the network. The site might use this information to send email messages to everyone in your contact list or even everyone you've ever sent an email message to with that email address. Social networking sites should explain that they're going to do this, but some do not.

Type the address of your social networking site directly into your browser or use your personal bookmarks. If you click a link to your site through email or another website, you might be entering your account name and password into a fake site where your personal information could be stolen. For more tips about how to avoid phishing scams, see Email and web scams: How to help protect yourself.

Be selective about who you accept as a friend on a social network. Identity thieves might create fake profiles in order to get information from you.

Choose your social network carefully. Evaluate the site that you plan to use and make sure you understand the privacy policy. Find out if the site monitors content that people post. You will be providing personal information to this website, so use the same criteria that you would to select a site where you enter your credit card.

Assume that everything you put on a social networking site is permanent. Even if you can delete your account, anyone on the Internet can easily print photos or text or save images and videos to a computer.

Be careful about installing extras on your site. Many social networking sites allow you to download third-party applications that let you do more with your personal page. Criminals sometimes use these applications to steal your personal information. To download and use third-party applications safely, take the same safety precautions that you take with any other program or file you download from the web.

Think twice before you use social networking sites at work. For more information, see Be careful with social networking sites, especially at work.

Talk to your kids about social networking. If you're a parent of children who use social networking sites, see How to help your kids use social websites more safely.

References:

Cashmore, Pete. Author. Mashable.com Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://mashable.com/author/pete-cashmore/

Hirsh, Jesse. (2009, April 11). Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://jessehirsh.com/category/media 

Priya1234.Teenick.com Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://www.teenink.com/hot_topics/all/article/322322/Identity-At-Risk/ 

Microsoft safety In (2012). Microsoft. Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/social-networking.aspx 

CBC News Online. (2012, Jan 27) Teen Cyber-Bulled to Death?  Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://youtu.be/xtvqZN1y3XE

CNN Live (2009, Nov 17) CNN Story about Online Privacy Retrieved July 4, 2012 from http://youtu.be/YpsTuY7gXik