Securing the Clicks Network Security in the Age of Social Media

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Hiding this in their user agreement privacy agreement they were able to fool lots of people who did not understand what to look for. This is disclosure of information to third parties because Instagram is branching out our information to others. A number of institutions have expressed concern over the lack of privacy granted to users on social networking sites. These include schools , libraries , and Government agencies. Libraries in the particular, being concerned with the privacy of individuals, have debated on allowing library patrons to access social networking sites on public library computers.

However, as of , Facebook has taken efforts to combat this concern by deleting profiles of users under the age of thirteen. As there is so much information provided other things can be deduced, such as the person's social security number , which can then be used as part of identity theft. For example, numerous celebrities have claimed their Twitter accounts have been hacked. The data reportedly included users' full names, email addresses, and links to their Facebook pages. Full names including middle name, date of birth, hometown, relationship status, residential information, other hobbies and interest.

Among all other age groups, in general, the most vulnerable victims of private-information-sharing behavior are preteens and early teenagers. There have been age restrictions put on numerous websites but how effective they are is debatable. Preteens and early teenagers are particularly susceptible to social pressures that encourage young people to reveal personal data when posting online. Teens often post information about their personal life, such as activities they are doing, sharing their current locations, who they spend time with, as well their thoughts and opinions.

They tend to share this information because they do not want to feel left out or judged by other adolescents who are practicing these sharing activities already. Teens are motivated to keep themselves up to date with the latest gossip, current trends, and trending news and, in doing so they are allowing themselves to become victims of cyberbullying, stalking, and in the future, could potentially harm them when pursuing job opportunities, and in the context of privacy, become more inclined to share their private information to the public. This is concerning because preteens and teenagers are the least educated on how public social media is, how to protect themselves online, and the detrimental consequences that could come from sharing too much personal information online.

As more and more young individuals are joining social media sites, they believe it is acceptable to post whatever they are thinking, as they don't realize the potential harm that information can do to them and how they are sacrificing their own privacy. Everything these teenagers do online is so they can stay in the loop of social opportunities, and the concern with this is that they do this in a way that is not only traceable but in a very persistent environment that motivates people to continue sharing information about themselves as well.

In , California enacted a law that would require social media sites to allow young registered users to erase their own comments from sites. Most major social networking sites are committed to ensuring that use of their services are as safe as possible. However, due to the high content of personal information placed on social networking sites, as well as the ability to hide behind a pseudo-identity, such sites have become increasingly popular for sexual prostetuited [online].

They say that sexual predators can lurk anonymously through the wormholes of cyberspace and access victim profiles online. The potential ability for stalking users on social networking sites has been noted and shared. Popular social networking sites make it easy to build a web of friends and acquaintances and share with them your photos, whereabouts, contact information, and interests without ever getting the chance to actually meet them. With the amount of information that users post about themselves online, it is easy for users to become a victim of stalking without even being aware of the risk.

A cyberstalking conviction can result in a restraining order, probation, or even criminal penalties against the assailant, including jail. Some applications are explicitly centered on "cyber stalking.

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When a person uploads photos to a social networking site, others are able to track their most recent location. Some smartphones are able to embed the longitude and latitude coordinates into the photo and automatically send this information to the application. Anybody using the application can search for a specific person and then find their immediate location. This poses many potential threats to users who share their information with a large group of followers.

Facebook "Places," is a Facebook service, which publicizes user location information to the networking community. Users are allowed to "check-in" at various locations including retail stores, convenience stores, and restaurants. Also, users are able to create their own "place," disclosing personal information onto the Internet. This form of location tracking is automated and must be turned off manually. Various settings must be turned off and manipulated in order for the user to ensure privacy.

Each location tracked allows third party advertisers to customize advertisements that suit one's interests. Currently, the Federal Trade Commissioner along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center are shedding light on the issues of location data tracking on social networking sites. Unintentional fame can harm a person's character, reputation, relationships, chance of employment, and privacy- ultimately infringing upon a person's right to the pursuit of happiness. Many cases of unintentional fame have led its victims to take legal action. The right to be forgotten is a legal concept that includes removing one's information from the media that was once available to the public.

The right to be forgotten is currently enforced in the European Union and Argentina, and has been recognized in various cases in the United States, particularly in the case of Melvin v. Privacy concerns have also been raised over a number of high-profile incidents which can be considered embarrassing for users.

Various internet memes have been started on social networking sites or been used as a means towards their spread across the internet. In , a Canadian teenager became known as the Star Wars Kid after a video of him using a golf club as a light sabre was posted on the internet without his consent. The video quickly became a hit, much to the embarrassment of the teenager, who claims to have suffered as a result.

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Issues relating to privacy and employment are becoming a concern with regards to social networking sites. As of , it has been estimated by CareerBuilder. While there is little doubt that employers will continue to use social networking sites as a means of monitoring staff and screening potential candidates, it has been noted that such actions may be illegal under in jurisdictions.

If a potential employer uses a social networking site to check out a job candidate and then rejects that person based on what they see, he or she could be charged with discrimination. With the recent concerns about new technologies, the United States is now developing laws and regulations to protect certain aspects of people's information on different medias. Monitoring of social networking sites is not limited to potential workers. Issues relating to privacy are becoming an increasing concern for those currently in employment. A number of high-profile cases have appeared in which individuals have been sacked for posting comments on social networking which have been considered disparaging to their current employers or fellow workers.

In , sixteen-year-old Kimberley Swann was sacked from her position at Ivell Marketing and Logistics Limited after describing her job as 'boring'. In fact, employers can even hire third-party companies to monitor online employee activity for them. According to an article by Read Write Web employers use the service to "make sure that employees don't leak sensitive information on social networks or engage in any behavior that could damage a company's reputation. Most employers wouldn't dream of following their staff down the pub to see if they were sounding off about work to their friends," he said.

Monitoring of staff's social networking activities is also becoming an increasingly common method of ensuring that employees are not browsing websites during work hours. Social networks are designed for individuals to socially interact with other people over the Internet. However, some individuals engage in undesirable online social behaviors, which negatively impacts other people's online experiences.

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It has created a wide range of online interpersonal victimization. Some studies have shown that social network victimization appears largely in adolescent and teens, and the type of victimization includes sexual advances and harassment. Negative social behaviors such as aggressive attitudes and discussing sexual related topics motivate the offenders to achieve their goals.

While the concept of a worldwide communicative network seems to adhere to the public sphere model, market forces control access to such a resource. In , investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that many of the most popular applications on Facebook were transmitting identifying information about users and their friends to advertisers and internet tracking companies, which is a violation of Facebook's privacy policy. Using social media for academic research is accelerating and raising ethical concerns along the way, as vast amounts of information collected by private companies — including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter — are giving new insight into all aspects of everyday life.

Our social media "audience" is bigger than we actually know; our followers or friends aren't the only ones that can see information about us. Social media sites are collecting data from us just by searching something such as "favorite restaurant" on our search engine. Facebook is transformed from a public space to a behavioral laboratory," says the study, which cites a Harvard-based research project of 1, college-based Facebook users in which it became possible to "deanonymize parts of the data set," or cross-reference anonymous data to make student identification possible.

One example of investigators using Facebook to nab a criminal is the case of Maxi Sopo. Charged with bank fraud, and having escaped to Mexico, he was nowhere to be found until he started posting on Facebook. Although his profile was private, his list of friends was not, and through this vector, where he met a former official of the Justice Department, he was eventually caught. In recent years, some state and local law enforcement agencies have also begun to rely on social media websites as resources.

Although obtaining records of information not shared publicly by or about site users often requires a subpoena, public pages on sites such as Facebook and MySpace offer access to personal information that can be valuable to law enforcement. On October 18, , the Department of Homeland Security DHS was scheduled to begin using personal information collected using social media platforms to screen immigrants arriving in the U.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement in late September asserting that the planned use of social media is nothing new, with one department spokesperson saying DHS has been using social media to collect information for years. It can chart out our relationships, networks, and associations.

It can monitor protests, identify the leaders of political and social movements, and measure our influence. The idea of the 'mob rule' can be described as a situation in which control is held by those outside the conventional or lawful realm. In response to the News International phone hacking scandal involving News of the World in the United Kingdom , a report was written to enact new media privacy regulations. The British author of the Leveson Report on the ethics of the British press, Lord Justice Leveson , has drawn attention to the need to take action on protecting privacy on the internet.

This movement is described by Lord Justice Leveson as a global megaphone for gossip: Foursquare, Facebook, Loopt are application which allow users to check- in and these capabilities allows a user to share their current location information to their connection. Some of them even update their travel plans on social networking applications. However, the disclosure of location information within these networks can cause privacy concerns among mobile users.

Foursquare defines another framework of action for the user. It appears to be in the interest of Foursquare that users provide many personal data that are set as public. This is illustrated, among others, by the fact that, although all the respondents want high control over the location privacy settings, almost none of them ever checked the Foursquare privacy settings before.

Another privacy issue with social networks is the privacy agreement. The privacy agreement states that the social network owns all of the content that users upload. This includes pictures, videos, and messages are all stored in the social networks database even if the user decides to terminate his or her account. Privacy agreements oftentimes say that they can track a user's location and activity based on the device used for the site.

For example, the privacy agreement for Facebook states that "all devices that a person uses to access Facebook are recorded such as IP addresses, phone numbers, operating system and even GPS locations". Most privacy agreements state the most important information at the end because it is assumed that people will not read it completely. The ethical dilemma lies in that upon the agreement to register for SNSs, the personal information disclosed is legally accessible and managed by the sites privately established online security operators and operating systems; leaving access of user data to be "under the discretion" of the site s operators.

Giving rise to the moral obligation and responsibility of the sites operators to maintain private information to be within user control. However, due to the legality of outsourcing of user data upon registration- without prior discretion, data outsourcing has been frequented by SNSs operating systems- regardless of user privacy settings. Data outsourcing has been proven to be consistently exploited since the emergence of SNSs. Employers have often been found to hire individuals or companies to search deep into the SNSs user database to find "less than pleasant" information regarding applicants during the review process.

One of the main concerns that people have with their security is the lack of visibility that policies and settings have in the social networks. It is often located in areas hard to see like the top left or right of the screen. Another concern is the lack of information that users get from the companies when there is a change in their policies. They always inform users about new updates, but it is difficult to get information about these changes. Most social networking sites require users to agree to Terms of Use policies before they use their services.

Controversially, these Terms of Use declarations that users must agree to often contain clauses permitting social networking operators to store data on users, or even share it with third parties. Facebook has attracted attention over its policies regarding data storage, such as making it difficult to delete an account, holding onto data after an account is de-activated and being caught sharing personal data with third parties.

The answers to these questions will give an indication of how safe the social networking site is. There are people out there who want—and will do just about anything—to get someone's private information. It's essential to realize that it's difficult to keep your privacy secured all the time.

It is dangerous to keep your device logged on since others may have access to your social profiles while you are not paying attention. Children's safety may be compromised if their parents post their whereabouts in a site where others know who their real identities are. Being thorough before posting online can create a safer internet experience for children and adults.

Read the social networking site's fine prints. Many sites push its users to agree to terms that are best for the sites—not the users. Exactly how to read the terms are explained above at "Reading a Privacy Statement in Terms and Conditions" part Make sure the social networking site is safe before sharing information.

Users shouldn't be sharing information if they don't know who are using the websites since their personally identifiable information could be exposed to other users of the site. Users should take the extra time to get to know the privacy protection systems of various social networks they are or will be using. Only friends should be allowed to access their information. Users should use complex passwords on their computers and cell phones and change them from time to time. This will protect users' information in case these devices are stolen.

Others would be able to use viruses and other ways to invade a user's computer if he or she installed something unsafe. The users' privacy may be threatened by any actions. Following actions needs special attention. A user should be sure about who the person is before adding it as a new friend. Many links which looks attractive like gift cards are specially designed by malicious users. Clicking on these links may result in losing personal information or money.

A revealing photo could attract the attention of potential criminals. Facebook has been scrutinized for a variety of privacy concerns due to changes in its privacy settings on the site generally over time as well as privacy concerns within Facebook applications. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, first launched Facebook [] in , it was focused on universities and only those with.

Furthermore, only those within your own university network could see your page. Some argue that initial users were much more willing to share private information for these reasons. As time went on, Facebook became more public allowing those outside universities, and furthermore, those without a specific network, to join and see pages of those in networks that were not their own. In Facebook introduced the News Feed, a feature that would highlight recent friend activity. By , Facebook made "more and more information public by default".

For example, in December , "Facebook drastically changed its privacy policies, allowing users to see each others' lists of friends, even if users had previously indicated they wanted to keep these lists private". Also, "the new settings made photos publicly available by default, often without users' knowledge". Facebook recently updated its profile format allowing for people who are not "friends" of others to view personal information about other users, even when the profile is set to private.

However, As of January 18, Facebook changed its decision to make home addresses and telephone numbers accessible to third party members, but it is still possible for third party members to have access to less exact personal information, like one's hometown and employment, if the user has entered the information into Facebook. And the request for permission does not make clear to the user why the information is needed or how it will be used. Breakup Notifier is an example of a Facebook "cyberstalking" app that has recently been taken down.

Essentially, the application notifies users when a person breaks up with their partner through Facebook, allowing users to instantly become aware of their friend's romantic activities. The concept became very popular, with the site attracting , visits in the first 36 hours; people downloaded the app 40, times. Just days later, the app had more than 3. It was only in , four years after the first introduction of Facebook, that Facebook decided to create an option to permanently delete information. Until this point in time, it was only an option to deactivate a Facebook which still left the user's information within Facebook servers.

After thousands of users complaints, Facebook obliged and created a tool which was located in the Help Section but later removed. To locate the tool to permanently delete a user's Facebook, he or she must manually search through Facebook's Help section by entering the request to delete the Facebook in the search box. Only then will a link be provided to prompt the user to delete his or her profile. These new privacy settings enraged some users, one of whom claimed, "Facebook is trying to dupe hundreds of millions of users they've spent years attracting into exposing their data for Facebook's personal gain.

In response to user complaints, Facebook continued to add more and more privacy settings resulting in "50 settings and more than privacy options. Facebook management responded that "there are always trade offs between providing comprehensive and precise granular controls and offering simple tools that may be broad and blunt. Studies have shown that users actually pay little attention to "permissions they give to third party apps. Most users are not aware that they can modify the privacy settings and unless they modify them, their information is open to the public.

On Facebook privacy settings can be accessed via the drop down menu under account in the top right corner. There users can change who can view their profile and what information can be displayed on their profile. Although Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, and others in the management team usually respond in some manner to user concerns, they have been unapologetic about the trend towards less privacy. They have stated that they must continually "be innovating and updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are. However, Zuckerberg did admit that in the initial release of the News Feed, they "did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them.

Facebook's privacy settings have greatly evolved and are continuing to change over time. Zuckerberg "believes the age of privacy is 'over,' and that norms have evolved considerably since he first co-founded the social networking site". A user may notice personalized ads under the 'Sponsored' area of the page.

Another issue of privacy that Facebook uses is the new facial recognition software. This feature includes the software to identify photos that users are tagged in by developing a template based on one's facial features. Similar to Rotenberg's claim that Facebook users are unclear of how or why their information has gone public, recently the Federal Trade Commission and Commerce Department have become involved. The Federal Trade Commission has recently released a report claiming that Internet companies and other industries will soon need to increase their protection for online users.

Because online users often unknowingly opt in on making their information public, the FTC is urging Internet companies to make privacy notes simpler and easier for the public to understand, therefore increasing their option to opt out. Perhaps this new policy should also be implemented in the Facebook world. The Commerce Department claims that Americans, "have been ill-served by a patchwork of privacy laws that contain broad gaps,".

The illegal activities on Facebook are very widespread, in particular, phishing attacks, allowing attackers to steal other people's passwords.

The Facebook users are led to land on a page where they are asked for their login information, and their personal information is stolen in that way. According to the news from PC World Business Center which was published on April 22, , we can know that a hacker named Kirllos illegally stole and sold 1. Their illegal approach is that they used accounts which were bought from hackers to send advertisements to friends of users. When friends see the advertisements, they will have opinion about them, because "People will follow it because they believe it was a friend that told them to go to this link," said Randy Abrams, director of technical education with security vendor Eset.

The influence of advertisements on Facebook is so huge and obvious.

Bahadur Gary (Author of Securing the Clicks Network Security in the Age of Social Media)

A leaked document from Facebook has revealed that the company was able to identify "insecure, worthless, stressed or defeated" emotions, especially in teenagers, and then proceeded to inform advertisers. Recently, there have been allegations made against Facebook accusing the app of listening in on its users through their smartphone's microphone in order to gather information for advertisers. These rumors have been proven to be false as well as impossible. For one, because it does not have a specific buzzword to listen for like the Amazon Echo , Facebook would have to record everything its users say.

Facebook specifically states in their Cookies Policy that they use cookies to help display ads that will peak the users interest. They then use this information to help make recommendations for numerous businesses, organizations, associations, etc.

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A study was conducted at Northeastern University by Alan Mislove and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems, where an algorithm was created to try and discover personal attributes of a Facebook user by looking at their friend's list. They looked for information such as high school and college attended, major, hometown, graduation year and even what dorm a student may have lived in. Due to the correlation of Facebook friends and universities they attend, it was easy to discover where a Facebook user was based on their list of friends.

This fact is one that has become very useful to advertisers targeting their audiences but is also a big risk for the privacy of all those with Facebook accounts. Recently, Facebook, knowingly agreed and facilitated a controversial experiment; the experiment blatantly bypassed user privacy and demonstrates the dangers and complex ethical nature of the current networking management system.

The "one week study in January of " where over , users were randomly selected to unknowingly partake in a study to determine the effect of "emotional alteration" by Facebook posts. Several issues pertaining to Facebook are due to privacy concerns. An article titled "Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended Consequences" examines the awareness that Facebook users have on privacy issues. This study shows that the gratifications of using Facebook tend to outweigh the perceived threats to privacy.

The most common strategy for privacy protection—decreasing profile visibility through restricting access to friends—is also a very weak mechanism; a quick fix rather than a systematic approach to protecting privacy. The study also offers the perspective that most users do not realize that restricting access to their data does not sufficiently address the risks resulting from the amount, quality and persistence of data they provide.

Facebook users in our study report familiarity and use of privacy settings, they are still accepting people as "friends" that they have only heard of through other or do not know at all and, therefore, most have very large groups of "friends" that have access to widely uploaded information such as full names, birthdates, hometowns, and many pictures. Commentators have noted that online social networking poses a fundamental challenge to the theory of privacy as control. The stakes have been raised because digital technologies lack "the relative transience of human memory," and can be trolled or data mined for information.

Instagram tracks users' photos even if they do not post them using a geotag. The app geotags an uploaded image regardless of whether the user chose to share its location or not. Therefore, anybody can view the exact location where an image was uploaded on a map. This is concerning due to the fact that most people upload photos from their home or other locations they frequent a lot, and the fact that locations are so easily shared raises privacy concerns of stalking and sexual predators being able to find their target in person after discovering them online.

Additionally, this is concerning for individual privacy, because when someone searches through these features on Instagram for a specific location or place, Instagram shows them the personal photos that their users have posted, along with the likes and comments on that photo regardless of whether the poster's account is private or not.

With these features, completely random people, businesses, and governments can see aspects of Instagram users' private lives. The Search and Explore pages that collect data based on user tagging illustrates how Instagram was able to create value out of the databases of information they collect on users throughout their business operations. Swarm is a mobile app that lets users check-in to a location and potentially make plans and set up future meetings with people nearby.

This app has made it easier for people in online communities to share their locations, as well as interact with others in this community through collecting rewards such as coins and stickers through competitions with other users. This plays into the privacy concerns of social media in general, because it makes it easier for other users as well as the companies this location data is shared with to track Swarm members. This tracking makes it easier for people to find their next targets for identity theft, stalking, and sexual harassment.

Spokeo is a "people-related" search engine with results compiled through data aggregation. The site contains information such as age, relationship status, estimated personal wealth, immediate family members and home address of individual people. This information is compiled through what is already on the internet or in other public records, but the website does not guarantee accuracy. Spokeo has been faced with potential class action lawsuits from people who claim that the organization breaches the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Her case is pending in court. Also in , Thomas Robins claimed that his personal information on the website was inaccurate and he was unable to edit it for accuracy. The case was dismissed because Robins did not claim that the site directly caused him actual harm. In January , the US government obtained a court order to force the social networking site, Twitter, to reveal information applicable surrounding certain subscribers involved in the WikiLeaks cases. This outcome of this case is questionable because it deals with the user's First Amendment rights.

Twitter moved to reverse the court order, and supported the idea that internet users should be notified and given an opportunity to defend their constitutional rights in court before their rights are compromised. Twitter's privacy policy states that information is collected through their different web sites, application, SMS, services, APIs, and other third parties. When the user uses Twitter's service they consent to the collection, transfer, storage, manipulation, disclosure, and other uses of this information.

In order to create a Twitter account, one must give a name, username, password, and email address. Any other information added to one's profile is completely voluntary. Any common account identifiers such as full IP address or username will be removed or deleted after 18 months. Twitter allows people to share information with their followers. Any messages that are not switched from the default privacy setting are public, and thus can be viewed by anyone with a Twitter account.

The most recent 20 tweets are posted on a public timeline. There have been incidents of leaked tweets on Twitter. Leaked tweets are tweets that have been published from a private account but have been made public. This occurs when friends of someone with a private account retweet, or copy and paste, that person's tweet and so on and so forth until the tweet is made public. This can make private information public, and could possibly be dangerous. Another issue involving privacy on Twitter deals with users unknowingly disclosing their information through tweets.

Twitter has location services attached to tweets, which some users don't even know are enabled. Many users tweet about being at home and attach their location to their tweet, revealing their personal home address. This information is represented as a latitude and longitude, which is completely open for any website or application to access. They provide Twitter user's names and personal addresses. The owner of the site stated that he created it as a warning to show how easy it is to find and reveal personal information without the right precautions. This has led to numerous break ins and robberies.

Teachers' privacy on MySpace has created controversy across the world. Eschool News warns, "Teachers, watch what you post online. Teachers can face consequences of license revocations, suspensions, and written reprimands. As a substitute, she was given an English degree. Sites such as Sgrouples and Diaspora have attempted to introduce various forms of privacy protection into their networks, while companies like Safe Shepherd have created software to remove personal information from the net.

Certain social media sites such as Ask. Sites such as these allow for a large chance or cyberbullying or cyberstalking to occur. People seem to believe that since they can be anonymous, they have the freedom to say anything no matter how mean or malicious. On July 6, , Blizzard Entertainment announced that it would display the real names tied to user accounts in its game forums.

On July 9, , CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Mike Morhaime announced a reversal of the decision to force posters' real names to appear on Blizzard's forums. The reversal was made in response to subscriber feedback. Snapchat also has a "stories" feature where users can send photos to their "story" and friends can view the story as many times as they want until it disappears after twenty-four hours.

Users have the ability to make their snapchat stories viewable to all of their friends on their friends list, only specific friends, or the story can be made public and viewed by anyone that has a snapchat account. Messages disappear after they are opened unless manually saved by the user by holding down on the message until a "saved" notification pops up. There is no notification sent to the users that their message has been saved by the recipient, however, there is a notification sent if the message is screenshot.

In , Snapchat updated their privacy policy, causing outrage from users because of changes in their ability to save user content. Cyber-stalkers or cyber-bullies often will monitor the victim's online activities and attempt to gather more information about their victims. Be aware that your Internet activity always leaves a trail -- and one far more traceable than you might imagine. The followings are some ideas to avoid being cyber-stalked and cyber-bullied:. Online grooming is the working to gain the trust of children and youngsters, often with the goal of gaining sexual relationship, through the use of online technology such as the Internet and in particular chat rooms.

The followings are some ideas to avoid being online groomed:. Safe Online Social Networking Online social networking is the interaction with external websites or service based on participant contributions to the content. The followings are some good practices on privacy protection: Usually the default setting is to allow anyone to see your profile. You can customize your settings to restrict access to only authorised people; Be cautious about whom you allow to contact you or how much and what type of information you share with strangers online; Take the time to read and understand the privacy policies that are published on social networking sites.

These documents may include types of information that they will reveal or disclose to other parties. Do not use the services if you have doubt or disagree with the terms; Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing — and knowing — about you; Use separate email accounts for registration on a social networking site and your personal communication; If you no longer need an account and there is private information in it, deactivation is not sufficient.

You should submit a request to the official website for account deletion. Do not post personal information such as your address, date of birth, personal IDs, telephone number, credit card number or information about your schedule or routine. If not necessary, do not disclose your full name; Do not use easy guessable password or the same password for various social networking sites.

Malicious people may be able to access your personal profile or pretend to be you if your password is compromised. Change your password immediately if you suspect anything went wrong in your account; Do not share your account and password with others; Do not trust everything you read online especially from strangers. People may post false or misleading information even their own identities. The followings are some ideas to avoid malicious exploits: Remove applications that you no longer need. Do not click on unsolicited links from stranger or sources you do not know.

Nevertheless, even you are visiting pages of someone you know, always be cautious when clicking on links or photos, because links, images or other file formats may include malicious code; Do not accept to download and install applications or plugs-ins that you do not know well. The followings are some ideas to avoid social-engineering attack: If the social networking site allows you to adjust how much information about you is available, for instance, by allowing only close friends to view your profile, consider using this feature; Just keep your network to people you really do know.

There is no need to add as many friends as you can. The person with the most "friends" isn't necessarily the winner in social networking; Be cautious to the links that are posted on the social networking sites. A malicious website may look very much alike to a legitimate site with only a tiny variation in spelling or a different domain e. Do not post personal information that might be used by other sites such as credit card or bank site to verify your identity.

Although some of these information may seem harmless e. The followings are some ideas to avoid being a victim of identity theft: Do not try to impersonate other people; Do not rush to accept invitation from someone seems you know; Do not give out your personal information unless you know whom you contact is the genuine user. The followings are some ideas to avoid being cyber-stalked and cyber-bullied: Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing — and knowing — about you; Block or ignore unwanted people that you do not trust; Keep a detailed account of all the stalkers or bullies activities; If a situation places you in fear, consult someone you trust and contact the police if consider appropriate; Use separate email accounts for registration on a social networking site and your personal communication; Create different user lists and allow only authorised users to view your online status.

Log out the systems if a situation online that has become hostile. Do not post anything which could be used to embarrass you; Do not share personal information, in public spaces anywhere online, nor give it to strangers, including in email or chat rooms; Do not post personal information as part of any user profiles; Do not respond to online provocation; Do not confront the stalker, this could only arouses more anger or emotional attacks; Do not response to cyber-bullies, as this may usually encourage more bullying messages being received. The followings are some ideas to avoid being online groomed:

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