If you think for a moment that everything you’re tweeting and updating is safe or private, think again. If your intentions are for “their eyes only,” you might want to pause before clicking the “Next” button.
In an article released by TheRepublic.com, the writer confirmed what most of us know to already be true: everything that we share on the web is not private. Nothing on the Internet ever, ever goes away, there are ways to backtrack and find everything that has been typed, blogged, indexed, etc. A couple of sites that specialize in taking you back in time are http://iawebarchiving.wordpress.com/ and http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. Even the material that we share on our social networking sites is archived. This is why it is so important to watch out for the things we update on Twitter and Facebook, especially those things that we think are harmless or that we think no one will remember.
Wrong. The archiving sites are there to prove it.
Some people who use Facebook also do a lot of gaming with applications like Farmville, do surveys or play those guessing games, and Facebook will supposedly give you an answer, or pique your interest. What the users might not realize is that some of these games are not launched by Facebook, but by third party phishing sites that access your profile, your data and information and access to your friends list, all because you clicked on the “Like” or the “Next” button.
Social networking is a great thing to participate in and does a lot of good for the online community. However, just like with anything else that requires protecting oneself, it’s best to use good judgment when you’re on social sites and an application asks for your permission to proceed, promising winnings and cash. The old adage still stands and always will, that if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Jen Williams
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