We’re all moving into social networking, setting up Facebook profiles, tweeting on twitter, posting a blog to Myspace, uploading videos to YouTube or Ning – but remember, in each case we setup an account and personalize our profile.
In our eagerness to social network with others we forget that there is an increasing trend toward social engineering and using social networks as a means to find out important information about you that could lead to compromising your identity, bank account, company or computer.
Certainly, social networks have their benefits, we have formed alliances with partners we would have never met but through Twitter and Facebook, have signed up many new subscribers and customers from our videos on YouTube – and this is only the tip of the iceburg, so you want to be involved.
Staying safe is largely common sense – not giving away too much information, using the privacy options that social networking sites provide, be careful who you network with and what you click on, keep a close eye on third party applications that may link to your information via an open interface with one of the social networking sites such as Facebook apps or Twitter applications.
Mitchell Ashley has created a 12-point safety plan that gives you the basics about staying safe when social networking – it’s a great read with a mix of basic information that will act as a reminder and other information that you may not have previously known.
Be sure to read this and apply the safety rules he outlines.
