Social media puts user data at risk

Nan Turner
Staff Writer
In the age of technology with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and the newest addition, Foursquare (which enables you to keep track of participating friends locations), it seems privacy has long since departed. However, there has also been an increase in websites offering people safety tips when it comes to sharing information.
Pleaserobme.com is one such site that started as the brainchild of three friends who were annoyed by the constant Foursquare updates, telling them others’ locations, that overwhelmed their Twitter feeds. Then the three noticed that not only were people “checking in” at various locations, but at home or the homes of family and friends, which put personal addresses on the internet. Realizing how dangerous this could potentially be for people, they set up their site and took their message to the masses.
“Pleaserobme.com then started as a way to see if we could make a funny, slightly controversial way of getting this to people’s attention and showing them how easy it is to get this information and that people might interpret it differently than they’d expect,” said Boy van Amstel, one of the website’s creators. “It took us just a few hours to create the website.”
He said he hopes pleaserobme.com will encourage people to think about the kind of information they are sharing online, particularly regarding their location, because the people seeing it might not have the best intentions.
Recently some of the sites have improved their privacy settings, but it is still up to users to set them correctly. Reclaimprivacy.org is a tool specifically for Facebook that can help users reset some of their security settings, van Amstel said.
Another awareness website which has gained some notice is openbook.com. The homepage features a way for people to search Facebook status updates, while not logged into Facebook to show just how much personal information is available outside of the social media site. Visitors to the site can learn how to better to protect themselves and sign a petition.
Overall van Amstel thinks the whole issue is just a matter of understanding.
“Keep in mind who you’re sending messages to,” said van Amstel. “Would you stand up in a crowded metro, full of people you only see at 8 a.m. during your commute to work and share your home address with them? Probably not, but you’d be surprised at how many people add people on Facebook they’ve only seen once. So sharing your address on Facebook could have about the same effect.”
The risk of putting too much information on the web is similar to other risks that we take every day. Using that knowledge and paying attention to warning signals and intuition is of the highest importance, according to VCU Criminal Justice Associate Professor Robyn Diehl, Ph.D.
“Do I think people shouldn’t put that information out there? Heck yes, I do,” Diehl said. “It’s just like I tell my students, don’t walk through Monroe Park holding $50 in your hand at 2 a.m. It’s all about an increasing risk of victimization, and we don’t want to increase our risk of victimization. We want to work at decreasing our risk. Putting that information out there isn’t a guarantee that something will happen to you, but it increases your risk.”
The message of safety is being spread among students as well, VCU sophomore Kristina Perez thinks really it just comes down to simple logic.
“It’s kind of up to the person whether they make [information] available or not,” said Perez. “Change their privacy settings maybe, or not update the statuses to where they are exactly. Just random common sense stuff, even though people don’t use common sense.”

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