Security Awareness on Social Networks

The very nature of such sites encourages users to provide a certain amount of personal information. But when deciding how much information to reveal, people may not exercise the same amount of caution on a Website as they would when meeting someone in person. This happens because:

• the Internet provides a sense of anonymity;
• the lack of physical interaction provides a false sense of security; and
• they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting that others may see it.

Sharing too much information on social networking sites can be problematic in two ways: first, it can reveal something about you that you’d rather your current or future employer or school administrator not know, and second, it can put your personal safety at risk.