Internet Privacy in Online Communities

A couple of days ago Mr. O’Connell received a flyer from the Tech IT division, and was nice enough to forward it to me.  I thought it would be all technical stuff, but it turns out the flyer broke down technical stuff so that anyone can understand it.   I visited their website:  http://safecomputing.ttu.edu/ttu/events and found it to be really interesting too.  They have such things as “safe blogging,” basic computing safety practices, and a host of other things that are good for a computer user to know and implement. 

They also had an article about getting spy-ware and other bad things off of your computer.  I reasoned that it would be worth my time to run a spy-ware detection program and pass that information along, but was just sure they wouldn’t find any because I have Norton Anti-Virus.  Norton has a spy-ware function on it and I run that every week when I run the anti-virus part of the program.  I didn’t have anything to worry about.  How wrong I was! 

The anti-spy-ware program found 8 spy-ware programs on my computer.  These threats ranged from high risk to low risk, but I didn’t care what the risk was I wanted them off of my computer. Most of them were ad-ware programs that  attach themselves to legitimate programs and then hide on your computer to send personal information back to their owner. 

 I got them off my computer, but now I am feeling uncomfortable at the ease of which these programs installed themselves on my computer, and how hard will it be for them to do it again?  I guess I’ll have to visit that Tech site regularly and run their spy-ware detector program more often. 

Also worthwhile was a column on the flyer about personal web spaces and blogging.  This is their recommendation:

• Be as anonymous as possible;
• Protect your profile information;
• Carefully monitor your contact list;
• Scrutinize third party information sharing;
• Avoid in-person meetings;
• Be aware:  potential employers search; and
• Think before posting photos. 

I have noticed that when I go to a fellow student’s blog their name is not on the blog anywhere that I can find.  So, I thought I would introduce myself: My name is Debra Chapman, I am a junior majoring in Journalism, specifically news-editorial.  I am really loving this class and am glad I decided to take it. 

on-line-communities-in-class-discussion.doc

 The attachment is the report I gave on the traveller’s website.  I found the site very interesting and a great community even if you are just thinking about traveling and want to learn more about your dream destination.  Even if your destination is a small island you will probably find something about it on this site from people who have been there and can give you some pointers about what to do and what not to do.

Well I actually found a community that is centered around discussing privacy issues.  The site is:  https://www.ieeecommunities.org/securityandprivacy.  I

It also offers other forums, one of them I thought might be of some interest: the USA Employment and Careers Strategy Forum.  It is free and only took a few minutes for me to join.  To join all I had to have was a user-name and password.  I really liked the fact that you can hide or show any or all of your personal information.

Once entered the community I decided to go into the discussions that were going on.  There was everything from someone looking for a job, someone looking to hire a new employee, and a NY Times journalist looking to interview an engineer about the cost of health insurance.

It is a sophisticated community that looks to fill the needs of its members through discussions, chats, announcements and databases.  It is very easy to navigate, and has a lot of useful information for anybody looking for employment. 

I posted last week about leaving your age off of your account in order to enhance your privacy.  Different privacy sites give suggestions about making yourself a hundred years old.  Rather than lying, there may be another way like leaving your age out altogether. 

 I tried to set up an account on myspace and facebook by filling out everything except my age.  I got a message that said, “You must indicate your birthdate to register.”  I tried putting in 1/1/2006 to disguise my age, but then it said I was too young to register. 

 Apparently on-line social communities want your age to categorize you.  Facebook categorizes you in:  a company, a region, high school, or college.  I’m sure this makes it easier for potential friends to find you, and for you to find potential friends.  And that is what on-line communities are all about:  finding similar people with similar interests. 

 But, I still think that kids under 14 should not put their real age.  During my research I found it very surprising that predators target 11-14 year olds.  I would have thought that it would have been kids say, 8-11 or so.  So, in the interest of protecting a child, I think it is ok to put in a wrong age if they absolutely have to be on the site.  And whether or not they should be on social websites, I have to say, is a totally different topic. 

I am going to write about privacy in on-line communities.  I will introduce a website and discuss having your personal information on that website, and how to keep your information private it you so desire.  I will also discuss how communities share information, and how this information is used.  I will compare various websites and how private (or not) each one is. 

In order to protect yourself you might consider putting in an age of a hundred or so.

The simple act of participating in an online community can open you up to getting spam at the very least, and can open you up to inviting a predator into your life at the very worst.