10 tips for social networks
Social networking web sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Windows Live Spaces community services that can be used to connect with other people to share information such as photos, video, and private messages.
As the popularity of this social site grows, so also with the risk of them. Hackers, spammers, virus writers, identity thieves, and other acts of criminal traffic.
Read these tips to help protect yourself when you use social networks.
1. Use caution when you click on the link that you receive in messages from your friends on social websites. Treat links in messages on the site as shown in the e-mail. (For more information, see Approach links in e-mail with caution.)
2. Do not believe that the message was actually from the saying of it. Hacker can log in to your account and send messages that are visible from your friends, but it does not. If you suspect that a false message, using alternative methods to contact your friend to find out. This includes an invitation to join the new social network.
3. To avoid giving away e-mail addresses of your friends, do not allow the social service network to scan e-mail your address book. When you join a new social network, you may receive a bid to enter your e-mail address and password to find out who else is in the network. This site may use this information to send e-mail to everyone in your contact list or even all the people you ever receive an e-mail to the e-mail address. Social network sites should explain that they are going to do this, but some do not.
4. Type the address of your social network directly in your browser or use a bookmark private. If you click the link to your site through e-mail or Web site, you may want to enter your account name and password to the fake site where your personal information can be stolen.
5. Selective about who will accept you as a friend on social networks. Identity thief may create a false profile to get information from you. This is known as social engineering.
6. Select a social network with care. Evaluate the sites that you plan to use and make sure you understand the privacy policy. Knowing whether the site monitors content that people post. You will provide personal information to this Web site, so using the same criteria that you want to select the site where you enter your credit card.
7. Consider what you write on the social network sites are permanent. Even if you can delete your account, anyone on the Internet can easily print or save information to the computer.
8. Be careful about installing on your site. Many social networking site allows you to download third-party applications that lets you do more with your personal page. Criminal sometimes use this to steal your personal information. To download and use third-party applications secure, take the same safety measures that you do with other programs or files that you download from the Web. For more information, see Before you download files, help protect your computer.
9. Think twice before you use social networking sites at work. For more information, see Be careful with social networking sites, especially in the workplace.
10. Talking with children about social networks. If you are the parents of children who use social network sites, see How do children to help you use social sites more secure.