Sounds like a good song title to me. haha. Anyways, on a serious note, its a big deal. Having privacy in the modern virtual world should be on the top of every users safety list. Not just for adult users, but for kid users as well. There are good and bad reasons behind the illusion of privacy
The good side is primarily projected towards the adult users. A user can create an account and hide their personal information. Users can limit their account to just their friends. For the users who do a lot of shopping on online, it is recommended to not use a credit card number and use gift cards instead. Gift cards, like the Visa gift cards, have a fixed money limit once, so if a hacker gets the number, they won't get very far on the spending.
The bad side is projected toward, both adults and kids. Anybody can create an account, and because of this, other users don't know the identity of other users. So, if a user just randomly adds someone they don't know, their whole identification is at jeopardy. This is what brings on to cyber-bullying and other really bad things that you hear on the news all the time.
My recommendation is just not to put personal information on the internet. It is way to easy to get your information out into the wrong hands. Don't put out phone numbers, email addresses, even current city, unless you monitor who you add as a friend on your profile.
Nate, you see the grand illusion. I'm not so much concerned about what personal information I type into a profie (because I can change it later or delete it -- or can I?) but more concerned with the "CONNECTIONS" I make. Once you agree to connect yourself to a site, via name, address, pnone number, email, etc. -- your information, I believe for the most part, is the property of the host site you connected to (?).
ReplyDeleteJust a hunch.
I like your post. I recently gave my in-laws a VISA gift card just for that reason. I knew that they did not like to use PayPal or their credit cards, so I figured that if they use the gift card, someone shouldn't be able to get much if they got the number. On sites I get on, I try to limit myself on the information that I enter. Great post!
ReplyDeleteKay, that is a good song, too. lol. But, agree with what you said about once you agree to connecting to site. Andie, Thanks! I use gift cards on everything, even on iTunes.
ReplyDelete