Security of Networking Sites and Micro-blogging Sites

http://www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.php/3802326/Spammers+Hijack+Facebook+Group+of+15+Million.htm

Internetnews reported that Facebook was hit with spammers on Febuary 11, 2009.

This has been a common problem for social networking sites and micro-blogging sites since they have started up. In January Twitter.com was hit with hackers promoting people to change their passwords.

Security of these sites is one of my biggest complaints. Not only is it easy for hackers to launch malicious attacks on its users but sites such as Facebook ask you to verify your account using your cell phone.

I did recently verify my account using my cell phone and soon after I looked at my account profile. I was shocked to see that my cell phone number was listed. I deleted my phone number as soon as I saw it but the number had already been put into a old high school friends blackberry.

A week later on my way home from work I get a text message from someone I didn't know. I sent a reply text asking "who they were?' to which the rely I received was "hey its Wade I got your phone number from Facebook." This is a big concern for me, I have several friends who I don't necessarily want them to have access to my phone number but I do not mind them being able to see me on the internet.

I feel Social Networking sites still have a long way to come in their tightening of security. I hope that they feel the same way.

I am a fan of networking sites

I have been a fan of Networking sites. I have had my Myspace account for several years and my Facebook account for almost a year. I will admit that I had preferred Myspace for the music and user friendliness but I have recently started using Facebook as much as Myspace. My change to Facebook is the discovery of several of my high school classmates who are not on Myspace.

Facebook is more of a people site for reconnecting with friends. While Myspace for me is more of a site to find and listen to music.

I recently just got a Twitter account and I have yet to figure out all the ins and outs. But I feel that Twitter will become another one of my favorite site to spend some time connecting to others with similar interest.

Why Social Networking and Micro-blogging are so popular

One reason Social networking and Micro-blogging have become so popular today because they allow people to become reattached to people they have not seen or been in contact with for many years such as old high school and college friends. They offer allow family members who do not live close to be able to stay in touch with photos, videos, emails and blogs.

Social Networking sites and Micro-blogging are set up so that even with little computer knowledge you can set up your own personal website. This makes everone young and old feel they are all on the same page.

Micro-blogging

Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates (say, 140 characters or fewer) or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, digital audio or the web. An example of this is www.twitter.com

Social Networking

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Examples of these are www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com and www.twitter.com.

This weeks assignment--Our opinion of privacy related to Google Maps.

This week I am to offer my opinion of privacy related to satellite and street views via Google Maps.

I have used Google Maps street view many time when I travel. The ability for me to see landmarks before making a upcoming turn is very helpful to me. When my son's dad moved last October I could go on Google Maps and see the house before taking my son there to spend the weekend. (this was in no way a stalker kind of thing)

But I never really thought about the privacy issue until this assignment. Now after doing a lot of web-surfing I have found so many things that make me question if I should really be looking at this and would I want my home to be that up and personally with everyone on the web.

Currently my town does not offer street view and right now I think I want it to stay that way. But I am torn over if all street views should be gone or maybe they could just blur out the people and open windows.

I think at this time I would prefer Google Maps to include landmarks in the street views but if there are peoples homes then I think they need to be blurred out.

You can see all kinds of things that people have found using Google Maps in my digg account. The link is in the post below.

my digg account

http://digg.com/users/mcclung178