Social Networks Are Great, Get a Lot of Traffic…But Do You Really Want a Stranger to See Information That You Think You’re Only Sharing With a Friend?

Soap Box Rants, a WEEKLY COLUMN To CopyLine Magazine

By Pamela Bratcher-McMillan
President, Chair & CEO, of PETAL et al.

Social networks get a lot of traffic. Some find the security settings very confusing and others are afraid to get onboard with opening their personal information to the public, with good reason.

While transparency may be good with professional social networks, do you really want the friend of a friend (or worst yet someone they approved a friendship with online and never met just because they wanted the number of friends to go up on their page). Do you really want a stranger to be able to see everything that you think you are only sharing with a friend? May not be a good idea to post things on your wall about going on vacation or away for the weekend when others may know where you live and that you live alone, because they’ve figured it out by monitoring your social network page.

Remember the movie where a neighbor was studying a woman’s social network page, and figured out her likes, needs and saw she was angry with her boyfriend at the time. He pretends to accidently meet her at the store and proceeds to develop a relationship. He knew from the social network that she wanted to move out of the apartment so he offered her an apartment in a building he just happened to own and had rigged for invasion the privacy of tenants that stayed there.

You also have networks where people will offer you a place in their home for free to sleep in while they are out of town. Many times when people see a kind face with a couple of very kind comments, they assume it is safe. Remember, some of the most charming people in history were the most dangerous, too. The more we use the Internet and get comfortable with smiling photos, the more vulnerable we become to the hidden dangers that exist there, especially young people.

If you have a need to socialize, why not do it face-to-face with people you have developed a relationship with over the years. Meet for lunch or knitting, chess, bowling, drawing, etc. twice a week. You’ll note with human interaction you’ve been missing a lot; that life is passing by. Get out of the house! If you can’t, create your own social network online. Yes your own. A proprietary website that requires users to log in to communicate with you can be easily set up. Why does the whole world need to know your business? What happened to your/our right to privacy? Those rights are not being taken. You are giving them away to proprietary servers/computers that can view your content, download your personal photos, documents, videos, etc. Not to mention, that at a moment’s notice, they can take your site down without your permission. Why? Because it is their content when you sit it on their machines, they can do whatever they like with it, including giving other agencies access to your information without your knowing it. The world is changing. Be safe.

If you want to know more about setting up your own social network where you can add the people you want in your world to it, and the content belongs to you, check out some free open source products like BuddyPress, OxWall and Pligg. However, you will need your own hosting company or server/computer to set it up.

While public social networks have their use, remember they are public, so you should use them as you would use any other public place. Be discreet.

Pamela Bratcher-McMillan is a technology Expert and President, Chair & CEO, of PETAL et al.