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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

TechTuesday: Tips for staying safe on social-networking sites


By Andrea Coombes
MarketWatch (MCT)

SAN FRANCISCO — The rise of social-networking brings the convergence of your personal life with your work life online.

People who participate on sites such as Facebook and MySpace are more likely to be sharing inside information with people who, before, they may have only passed the time of day with.

Whether you're an entrepreneur or an electrician, an executive or executive assistant, if you want to post a profile and "friend" people online, heed the tips below to ensure your online reputation doesn't hinder your offline life.

TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR REPUTATION, AND YOUR IDENTITY:
Look for tools that allow you to restrict access to your profile. On MySpace you can set your profile to "private," as well as all or a portion of your photos. On Facebook the "limited profile" function lets you essentially create a profile that's less personal for certain friends, while still maintaining a more in-depth profile for others.

Limit the degree to which you associate your online profile with work. While it makes sense to network online, if you start entering forums and conversations on diverse, more personal topics, consider whether your company name will be associated with your name. On Facebook, for instance, you can set your geographic network, rather than your workplace network, as your primary network so when you post messages to forums your name is connected to your city, not your employer, said Lee Aase, who writes a weblog about Facebook. Read his blog. http://leeaase.wordpress.com/facebook-business/

Don't alert people that you're leaving town. "I don't tell people I'm away," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant with Sophos, a computer security company. "I wait until I get back and then say, `Graham Cluley is back from Boston.'"

Be careful about whom you agree to "friend." "Be selective. I've come across people in Facebook who claim to have over 1,500 friends," Cluley said. "You can't possibly be friends with all of these people."

Think twice about what you're posting. "If you're not prepared to stand in the middle of Times Square and shout this information, then don't post it on the Internet," Cluley said. Don't include your home address, for instance.

On Facebook, every time you join a network, adjust your privacy settings to ensure you don't reveal all to everyone in that network. Sophos found that 75 percent of people in geographic networks allowed their profile to be viewed by another person on that network, Cluley said.

Visit this page on Sophos.com for more on protecting your identity on Facebook. http://www.sophos.com/security/topic/facebook.html

Visit MySpace's safety tips page. http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.viewpage&placement=safetytips

See a recent The Facebook Blog post about safety on the site. http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=6598927130

(c) 2007, MarketWatch.com Inc.
Visit MarketWatch on the Web at http://www.marketwatch.com
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Posted by courier at 08:18:03. Filed under: Features

Comments

FACEBOOK! FACEBOOK! WE LOVE IT!

Posted by JAMES LOGAN STUDENT at Wednesday, November 14, 2007 23:13:23

I came across a site recently and it appears to be a safe clean alternative to MySpace and Facebook.

The site is Our-Social.com and here is a copy of their press release:
Our-Social.com Offers a Safe, Family-Friendly Social Networking Alternative

Nov. 13, 2007 – At a loss for family-friendly online social networking? Searching for a Web-based community that’s easy to join and not just for younger people? Our-Social.com (http://www.our-social.com) offers a user-friendly environment free of profanity and pornographic material so that members can safely make new friends of all ages as well as connect with existing friends and family. As evidence of Our-Social.com’s commitment to extending a hand to everyone seeking a safe online community, membership is free.

"Our-Social is the clean alternative to the prominent social networking sites," said founder Theresa Adams. The site’s word filter prevents members from being exposed to profanity and lewd or sexual comments - as well as racial slurs and other hate speech. To further ensure that the site remains clear of offensive material and is safe for all ages, Adams has all pictures, video and audio clips go through an approval process – which takes places within 24 hours of submission - before they are posted.
In addition, Our-Social discourages members from ever publicly displaying information such as their e-mail address, real name and geographical location. As another safety precaution, Our-Social does not have a chat area but does provide a members-only forum. The forum is moderated and has several different threads under the main categories of Family, Health, Faith, Pets and Social Stuff. In keeping with the site’s mission of providing a safe, clean environment, the forum does not allow images except for a profile picture. "The profile picture does not have to be an actual photo of a person," said Adams. "Members can use an alternative image that fits their personality, such as a funny picture, cartoon, an animal picture or so on."

Members have their own account pages, which serve as personalized control panels, where users can manage all aspects of their account. Management activities include editing profiles, setting privacy levels for the account, creating or editing articles, checking mail, inviting friends to join, sending out friendship requests and creating numerous picture, video and audio albums.

The albums (also called audio sets and video sets) can hold multiple photo, videos or audio files, and the titles of each appear on the creator’s profile page. Other site members can leave comments in the albums, and individual albums can be set to different privacy levels. That means while all members may be able to view a particular album, another album from the same person might only be accessible to members who have been designated as friends.

Posted by terrie myrick at Thursday, November 29, 2007 16:31:23

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