Platform Evaluation - Facebook

Facebook. Over 500,000,000 people have an account. Are you one of the millions? If so, then think twice before making that next post. Most people don't even think about their privacy anymore after they've created their profile and edited it. Generally we tend to focus on the more fun stuff, like posts, pictures, and online games.  But even the fun stuff can be dangerous to you and your property.

Let's start off with talking about your 'friends'. It is obvious to most people that you should make sure that you actually know the person before you click 'accept'. But there are a lot of imposters and spammers out there. Did you know that about 40% of all Facebook accounts are fake? For all you know, the person that you just accepted as your FB friend could turn out to not be your real-life buddy. In fact, that buddy of yours in real-life may not even know that they're being impersonated either. A kid in Illinois learned that someone had made a fake profile of him, and that they were posting embarrassing and offensive things on peoples' walls. No one had even noticed that it wasn't him, and the imposter had attracted over 600 of his friends. He suffered emotional distress at school, and possibly could have a worse chance of getting a job in the future. A test performed by BitDefender showed just how easy it is for us to fall for spam, too. They made two fake profiles, one containing a lot of personal info, and the other one containing very little. They both joined very popular groups and sent out friend requests to many people within them. The blank profile managed to make friends with 88 random people, and the other one made friends with 111. They both then posted links on their friends' walls that led to the walls of the fake profiles, without any information whatsoever and 25% of the people clicked on the link! George Petre, who works at BitDefender, says, "This is exactly what spammers are doing to fool us."

That isn't all, however. There are more things that may get you into trouble than you think. Did you know that all it takes for hackers to get your social security number is your full name and birth date? Next time you're on Facebook, just go in there and take those things out, it's ok to have your birth day on there, but don't put the year. Also, another good thing to erase from your account is your address. It may be quite obvious that you wouldn't ever give your address out on the Internet, but 40% of all people with Facebook accounts still do. Even just pictures of your house, street, or neighborhood can give clues as to where you live. You may be thinking, "Yeah, but those pictures are really cool. And besides, what kind of friend would rob me?" Well, one man in Arizona had pictures of the inside and outside of his house, the inside pictures let burglars know whether you have an alarm or guard dog, and then posted on his wall