#Online Social Networks - beware or be aware ?!

Within the last few years we all got used to social networks on the internet such as myspace, Facebook, google + is also around the corner and we use applications such as twitter to keep our online friends updated. Most are members of forums and we get in touch with people from all over the world despite the fact that we most likely will never meet them in real life.

I was fortunate enough myself to meet some of them in real life and from personal experience it just shows the ability of these services to connect with people regardless of nationality, gender or religion. But most people underestimate the possible consequences and are too open minded about what information they share and who can actually see it displayed on the world wide web.

The latest Facebook privacy warning for example is regarding the mobile number of your contacts:

The phone numbers of ALL your mobile phone contacts are now on Facebook! If you click on account, edit friends and check the contact info, it  will openly show all phone numbers. You can disable this feature and delete your phone contact list by following directions on that very same page. 

- Upper right corner -> dropdown "Account"
- Click on "Edit friends"
- Select "Contacts" - you can see a mobile phone as symbol there

Facebook Phonebook displays contacts you have imported from your phone, as well as your Facebook friends. If you would like to remove your mobile contacts from Facebook, you need to disable the feature on your mobile phone and visit this page.

Some also have their contact email or pictures shown openly as well when you go to the profile page, even though the person doesn't belong to your friends list yet. When people realize this all of a sudden, they try to blame the social network for making private information visible to everyone.

But is this really the case? Would you blame a network that has the whole purpose of making it possible to connect with other people with the same interests? It is not their responsibility to make sure that you protect your privacy because all of them have very specific privacy settings in place already.

Most people just don't check them carefully until someone tells them or something really bad happens ... . If you sign a contract, do you read through the fine print or just skip that part? If you buy something, do you check if everything is fine and the quality as expected? It is always up to yourself because nobody else is supposed to take responsibility for your actions.

So if you happen to be active on a social network, always check your privacy settings before you complain - you will be surprised how much information you agreed to share without paying attention. Also, if you interact with others, they might not always agree with your opinion ... that doesn't mean either of you is right or wrong. 

Before you complain though, just look in the mirror first. Not knowing that privacy settings were in place is no excuse for not checking them, this should actually be the very first thing you do after signing up for one of these services. If you don't feel comfortable, just share what you can afford to lose without risking any severe consequences.