What if…
- What would happen to the pictures they had shared with just a few friends?
- What about their private messages that could be potentially embarrassing if they were made public?
- Would geo-location details that are often embedded in digital photos taken by today’s cell phones be used by criminals to locate where certain users live?
These are important concerns that all social networking users should be aware of.
Use the Newspaper Rule
Even knowing the dangers of using social networking sites, they are just too convenient and fun to use for us to shut down our accounts. But an important step to using social networking sites safely is to consider them as easily read as a newspaper. By assuming that any data entered into a social networking site- be it text or photos- will be read by EVERYONE, we will be less tempted to post private sensitive data that could lead to our embarrassment, or worse, posted publicly. If we follow that guideline, and there is a breach of the social networking website by attackers, it will be of little importance to us. Read Part 1 of this blog entry
