Unmasking facebook
Sometimes people tend to share their passwords with those they trust
users have to be mindful when accepting friend requests
Facebook is a social network platform which violates the privacy of users Sometimes when they click on this link the machine freezes and at this instance, the other party gains access to your personal information
Facebook (FB), a social media experiment that turned into a sensation, has dominated the lives of millions of users from around the world. For some it’s a friend in disguise and for others it’s an addiction. They take FB quite seriously hence their friends would know what they have done, places they have gone to, what they ate, drank and whom they met on a particular day.
How a social media platform, which in most instances is public, became a place to share personal matters is rather unknown. But today, those trends are what its users look up to as well. Rather than its positives, the downside of using FB was highlighted in most instances with people using fake profiles to stalk others and engage in cyber bullying and other practices. Even with widespread awareness, young FB users still post pictures and videos at their own risk. The Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT | CC) that overseas protecting social media platforms from malware and cyber threats have received close to 1700 complaints regarding fake users and profiles over the past few months.
“Be mindful when accepting friend requests” In his comments to the
, Roshan Chandraguptha, Information Security Engineer at the Computer Emergency Readiness Team – Sri Lanka (CERT) said that within the past few months till July they had received around 1700 complaints. “80% of them were related to fake profiles and photos being posted to various other profiles. Sometimes people tend to share their passwords with those they trust and when they log in, the other party has changed the password. Although there are many people who act friendly on Facebook, one has to be mindful when sharing personal information. In order to avoid being stalked by fake users, always add friends whom you know personally. It is also important to protect the privacy with regard to photos and videos you share. When you click the Privacy settings you can either change it to ‘Friends only’ or ‘Public’. If you change it to the former, these photos could only be seen by your friends. When photos are public even people who are not in your profile have access to them,” explained Chandraguptha. He further said that there are instances when the other party acts like a foreigner and traps users. “In such instances the other party usually acts very friendly with the local user and the users share their numbers as well. Thereafter they promise to send gifts or money. After few days people get calls from a local number asking users to pay some amount as customs clearance. There are instances when people have deposited huge amounts of money as well. Here they have to pay cash in addition to certain taxes as well. Then after some time when users return to their profiles, the other party has either changed their FB name or has deactivated the account. There are also instances when users receive links to a video or a photo. Sometimes when they click on this link the machine freezes and at this instance, the other party gains access to your personal information. Therefore users have to be mindful when accepting friend requests from unknown people,” he warned.
While there are active FB users who log in on a daily basis for positive purposes, many believe that it has become a place to share gossip and sling mud at others, which is far removed from the primary objective of this facility which is to connect with people around the world. Although it’s an easy way to stay connected with friends and families living abroad, people now tend to search for ‘safer ways’ of staying connected. As FB became a public platform that is open for anybody to share his or her likes and dislikes, it has also failed to convince people to continue using FB as well.