This post was going to be about a different subject, but I just came across a very well written article that caught my attention. The title can’t be more threatening: “How I’m going to use social networking to steal your identity”
I, like many of you, have a profile on facebook and I’ve seen lately some of my friends taking some funny-crazy tests that say which cartoon from the 80′s you are or which smurf you have more similarities with or in which city you should live or, this is the very last one, whether you’re an angel or a demon. And while the results are good for a laugh, I’d never take any of them. Simply put, I don’t see the point of spending time answering few questions to get a result that I know already will be somewhere between funny and inaccurate. But hey, I’m no-one to judge things just because I don’t use them and again I still smile when seeing some of my friend’s results.
Now, being more suspicious on those tests because of the agreement you need to sign up about the application having access to your profile, plus the information they gather about yourself when you go through the questions, I was thinking someone somewhere could make a good use of that data. I have to say I had in mind advertising companies and marketeers trying to push certain adds to your page that matched your preferences, but the above article opened my eyes to a reality that is very likely to happen. Who tells you that any information shared on social networks can’t be used with a fraudulent purpose?
Think about it, even Facebook had to secure the profiles by adding quite a detailed security configuration on their pages to avoid users being exposed. And there are already cases when someone impersonated other people by using information found on the web.
So, be mindful what you share, not only because your co-workers might find that you didn’t spend your day at home working, but also because you could find your VISA card in deep red.
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thanks