CYBER CRIME AGAINST WOMEN BY DEBARATI HALDER
Couple
of day’s back I came through a research which showed that women are more
attracted to social networking through popular social media like the Facebook
or Twitter than men (See http://in.lifestyle.yahoo.com/women-more-attracted-facebook-twitter-men-study-105041750.html).
Being a woman myself, I cannot wholeheartedly agree with this research as I
have seen many men *also* have taken likings for social networking too. But
this research made it once again crystal clear: women are vulnerable in the
net. In this era of social media, women do not click in the Facebook or Twitter
just as a leisure activity only. I see these Medias as mines of informations;
and I am sure many women like me visit these ‘mines’ for gathering useful
informations, which are essential for home maintenance, baby care to safe e-banking,
online shopping, part time or full time jobs from home etc. Where do we find
these mines? Anywhere and everywhere if you have your 6th sense
ready for gaining the informations. I look specifically for the ‘groups’ and ‘trending
topics’ for gathering informations, which in very sophisticated term, can also
be called as ‘data mining’.
But women of my genre, beware!
All
is not safe when you switch on your Facebook account with your personal informations
and albums open to your friends. In a ‘group,’ in the Facebook, there are
numbers of privacy issues which may bother members, especially women members;
let me detail them here:
1. If one member tags you or your photo, your
well protected informations, status updates and even the entire album can be
pulled out from your profile. Do not feel secured if you have made your informations
available for your friends and not for the public. You may never know, but your
friend’s friends can also view your ‘secrets’ meant only for your friends.
2. A
group expands by snow balling its members through existing members. So if any
one of the members mistakenly adds any unwanted individual, the security of the
other members may be jeopardized.
3. You
may get introduced to many likeminded members in a group, who may be interested
in knowing you more closely. But be careful. Once an individual sends a friend’s
request, he/she may be able to see the status updates and the new addings to
the album if they are not ‘protected’; this is possible even when the ‘friend’s
request’ is in the ‘pending’ status. Hence if you do not wish to share anything
with him/her, immediately close your door to him/her.
4. Remember
if this is not a closed group, your contributions to the group may be visible
in the world wide web if someone
searches for your name.
These
are but some of my own findings from my own experiences in the Facebook. But women,
don’t withdraw yourself. There are more ‘safety pins’ available for protecting
the loop holes.
Ø Facebook
offers few types of friend’s category, namely; acquaintances, friends and close
friends. It falls upon you to categorize your ‘friends’ for a better
networking.
Ø When
it is an open group, be careful to choose your words for contribution.
Ø Be
watchful; if you are tagged without your permission, ‘de-tag’ yourself .
Ø Take
immediate decision regarding friend’s requests. Pending requests may add more privacy
risks.
Ø If
you are a member in a group which allows snow balling, be sure to add known and
reliable friends. This is will make you a safety valve in your own group.
At the end, let your friends be aware of the positive side
of social networking. Being a social species, no human beings are fallible. But remember, we
are humans and a little bit of awareness would definitely make our lives in the
well webbed world wonderful.
Please Note: Do not violate copyright of this blog. If you would
like to use informations provided in this blog for your own
assignment/writeup/project/blog/article, please cite it as “Halder D. (2012), “Women,
be careful when you join groups in Facebook”,
6th September,2012, published in http://debaraticyberspace.blogspot.com/
