Social Networking and Security

Personally, for me, my privacy and the security of my information is my primary concern when using the internet. I’ve heard too many horror stories to take for granted that no one will take advantage of any information I let out online. For this reason, I rarely, if ever, give out my real name or other information online unless I personally know whoever is requesting the information. I keep a personal email address for personal use with people I know, and an anonymous one for anything else.

I will never join Facebook. With all the criticism over their privacy policy and security, I would never feel comfortable trusting the website to not let my information get out to people I don’t want it to. I neither trust Facebook as a technology, or the people behind it.

I think people do have to remember that social networking sites are a technology, and on the internet, and can therefore fail or be hacked. Even email accounts can be hacked. And Facebook has proven that it is not secure enough for me to feel comfortable using it.

I might be overly cautious about such things, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.