Securing the Clicks Network Security in the Age of Social Media

Since the start of these sites, there has always existed an issue of privacy. In , a young woman in New York City was on a first date with an online acquaintance and later sued for sexual harassment, after her date tried to play out some of the sexual fantasies they had discussed while online. This is just an early example of many more issues to come regarding internet privacy. In the past, social networking sites primarily consisted of the capability to chat with others in a chat room, which was far less popular than social networks today. People using these sites were seen as "techies" unlike users in the current era.

Privacy concerns with social networking services

One of the early privacy cases was in regards to MySpace , due to "stalking of minors, bullying, and privacy issues", which inevitably led to the adoption of "age requirements and other safety measures". A majority of the United States population uses some sort of social media site. There are several causes that contribute to the invasion of privacy throughout social networking platforms. They require people to share and connect with each other.

Even with privacy settings, posts on the internet can still be shared with people beyond a user's followers or friends. Once something is posted on the internet, it becomes public and is no longer private. Users can turn privacy settings on for their accounts;however, that does not guarantee that information will not go beyond their intended audience.

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Pictures and posts can be saved and posts may never really get deleted. A person's life becomes much more public because of social networking. Social media sites have allowed people to connect with many more people than with just in person interactions. People can connect with users from all across the world that they may never have the chance to meet in person. This can be a positive aspect; however, this also arises many concerns about privacy. Information can be posted about a person that they do not want getting out.

Many employers now look at a person's social media before hiring them for a job or position. Social media has become a tool that people use to find out information about a person's life. Someone can learn a lot about a person based on what they post before they even meet them once in person.

The ability to achieve privacy is a never ending process. Social networking sites vary in the levels of privacy offered. For some social networking sites like Facebook, providing real names and other personal information is encouraged by the site onto a page is known as a 'Profile'. This information usually consists of the birth date, current address, and telephone number s. Some sites also allow users to provide more information about themselves such as interests, hobbies, favorite books or films, and even relationship status.

However, there are other social network sites, such as Match. Thus, linking users to their real identity can sometimes be rather difficult. Nevertheless, individuals can sometimes be identified with face re-identification. For sites that do encourage information disclosure, it has been noted that majority of the users have no trouble disclosing their personal information to a large group of people. It is possible for users to block other users from locating them on Facebook, but this must be done by individual basis, and would, therefore, appear not to be commonly used for a wide number of people.

Most users do not realize that while they may make use of the security features on Facebook the default setting is restored after each update. All of this has led to many concerns that users are displaying far too much information on social networking sites which may have serious implications on their privacy. Facebook was criticized due to the perceived laxity regarding privacy in the default setting for users. This occurs when people are aware of risks, but then do not believe that these risks apply or relate to them as individuals. Individuals may be willing to risk their privacy to reap the rewards of being active on social media.

This study in particular looked at teenagers with mental illness and how they interact on social media. Privacy should be a main concern, especially for teens who may not be entirely informed about the importance and consequences of public versus private use. Users are often the targets as well as the source of information in social networking. Users leave digital imprints during browsing of social networking sites or services.

It has been identified from few of online studies conducted, that users trust websites and social networking sites. As per trust referred, [14] "trust is defined in Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman, as "the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor , irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party" p.

A survey [15] was conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, a majority of users provided their living city, phone numbers among other personal information, while user is clearly unaware of consequences of sharing certain information. Adding to this insight, is the social networking users are from various cities, remote villages, towns, cultures, traditions, religions, background, economic classes, education background, time zones and so on that highlight the significant gap in awareness. The survey results of the paper [15] suggest, "These results show that the interaction of trust and privacy concern in social networking sites is not yet understood to a sufficient degree to allow accurate modeling of behavior and activity.

The results of the study encourage further research in the effort to understand the development of relationships in the online social environment and the reasons for differences in behavior on different sites. As per reference, a survey conducted among social networking users at Carnegie Mellon University was indicative of following as reasons for lack of user awareness: There is hence a dire need for improving User's awareness swiftly, in order to address growing security and privacy concerns caused due to merely user's unawareness.

Social networking sites themselves can take a responsibility and make such awareness possible by means of participatory methods by virtual online means. There are several ways for third parties to access user information. Flickr is an example of a social media website that provides geotagged photos that allows users to view the exact location of where a person is visiting or staying. Geotagged photos make it easy for third party users to see where an individual is located or traveling to. Nearly all of the most popular applications on Facebook—including Farmville, Causes, and Quiz Planet—have been sharing users' information with advertising and tracking companies.

If a user clicked a specific ad in a page, Facebook will send the address of this page to advertisers, which will directly lead to a profile page. In this case, it is easy to identify users' names. The app requires personal information that includes, school name, user's name, email, and age. But Take With Me Learning was created by company that was known for illegally gathering student's personal information without their knowledge and selling it to advertisement companies.

Not only could cambridge analytica access the data of the person who took the survey, they could also access all of the data of that person's Facebook friends. While what cambridge analytica did by collecting the data may or may not be illegal, they then transferred the data they acquired to third parties so that it could be used to sway voters. Application programming interface API is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications.

Securing the Clicks Network Security in the Age of Social Media

By using query language, sharing content and data between communities and applications became much easier. APIs simplify all that by limiting outside program access to a specific set of features—often enough, requests for data of one sort or another. APIs clearly define exactly how a program will interact with the rest of the software world—saving time.

This is extremely enticing for researchers due to the greater number of possible avenues of research. There have however been some concerns with API because of the recent scandal between Facebook and the political consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica. And the developer was able to exploit a loophole to gather information on not only people who used the app but all their friends — without them knowing. Search engines are an easy way to find information without scanning every site yourself.

Keywords that are typed into a search box will lead to the results. So it is necessary to make sure that the keywords typed are precise and correct. There are many of such search engines, some of which may lead the user to fake sites which may obtain personal information or are laden with viruses.

Furthermore, some search engines, like DuckDuckGo , will not violate the user's privacy. On most social media websites, user's geographical location can be gathered either by users through voluntary check-in applications like Foursquare and Facebook Places or by applications through technologies like IP address geolocation, cellphone network triangulation, RFID and GPS.

The approach used matters less than the result which holds that the content produced is coupled with the geographical location where the user produced it. Additionally, many applications attach the contents of other forms of information like OS language, device type and capture time. The result is that by posting, tweeting or taking pictures, users produce and share an enormous amount of personal information.

This accessible data along with data mining technology, users' information can be used in different ways to improve customer service. According to what you retweet, what you like and the hashtag , Twitter can recommend some topics and advertisements. Twitter's suggestions for who to follow [27] is done by this recommendation system. Commerce, such as Amazon , make use of users' information to recommend items for users. Recommendations are based on at least prior purchases, shopping cart, and wishlist. Affinity analysis is a data mining technique that used to understand the purchase behavior of customers.

By using machine learning method, whether a user is a potential follower of Starbucks can be predicted. In addition, user profiles can be used to identify similar users. More than 1, companies are waiting in line to get access to millions of tweets from users that are using the popular social networking website. Companies believe that by using data mining technologies they would be able to gather important information that can be used for marketing and advertising. According to Gary Kovacs 's speech about Tracking our online trackers, when he used the internet to find an answer to a question, "We are not even 2 bites into breakfast and there are already nearly 25 sites that are tracking me", and he was navigated by 4 of them.

Studies have shown that people's right to the belief in privacy is the most pivotal predictor in their attitudes concerning online privacy. The Privacy Act of a United States federal law states:. Disclosure in this context refers to any means of communication, be it written, oral, electronic or mechanical. This states that agencies are forbidden to give out, or disclose, the information of an individual without being given consent by the individual to release that information.

However, it falls on the individual to prove that a wrongful disclosure, or disclosure in general, has occurred. Although The Privacy Act of does a lot to limit privacy invasion through third party disclosure, it does list a series of twelve exceptions that deem disclosure permissible:. Social profiling allows for Facebook and other social networking media websites of filtering through the advertisements, assigning specific ones to specific age groups, gender groups, and even ethnicities.

Data aggregation sites like Spokeo have highlighted the feasibility of aggregating social data across social sites as well as integrating it with public records. A study [33] highlighted these issues by measuring the amount of unintended information leakage over a large number of users with the varying number of social networks. It identified and measured information that could be used in attacks against what-you-know security. Studies [34] [35] have also pointed to most social networks unintentionally providing 3rd party advertising and tracking sites with personal information.

It raises the issue of private information inadvertently being sent to 3rd party advertising sites via Referrer strings or cookies. Civil libertarians worry that social networking sites, particularly Facebook , have greatly diminished user confidentiality in numerous ways. To sustain their profitability, applications like Facebook examine and market personal information by logging data through cookies , small files that stockpile the data on someone's device.

According to the critics, users might notice that the sponsorships and commercials are tailored to their disclosed private data, which could result in a sense of betrayal. On Facebook, there is one way to ensure protection against applications sharing personal information. On the privacy settings page, you can remove or turn off unwanted or spam applications. Twitter has admitted that they have scanned and imported their user's phone contacts onto the website database so that they can learn more about their users.

Most users were unaware that Twitter is created this way for new users to search for their friends. Twitter has stated that they will have their privacy guidelines illustrated more clearly in the future. In , after Facebook bought Instagram there was an option that Instagram could use its own users photos for ad purposes. This new policy was hidden in their user agreement. Users could opt out but the only way was to delete their account at before a certain deadline. Hiding this in their user agreement privacy agreement they were able to fool lots of people who did not understand what to look for.

This is disclosure of information to third parties because Instagram is branching out our information to others. A number of institutions have expressed concern over the lack of privacy granted to users on social networking sites. These include schools , libraries , and Government agencies. Libraries in the particular, being concerned with the privacy of individuals, have debated on allowing library patrons to access social networking sites on public library computers. However, as of , Facebook has taken efforts to combat this concern by deleting profiles of users under the age of thirteen.

As there is so much information provided other things can be deduced, such as the person's social security number , which can then be used as part of identity theft. For example, numerous celebrities have claimed their Twitter accounts have been hacked. The data reportedly included users' full names, email addresses, and links to their Facebook pages.

Full names including middle name, date of birth, hometown, relationship status, residential information, other hobbies and interest. Among all other age groups, in general, the most vulnerable victims of private-information-sharing behavior are preteens and early teenagers. There have been age restrictions put on numerous websites but how effective they are is debatable. Preteens and early teenagers are particularly susceptible to social pressures that encourage young people to reveal personal data when posting online.

Teens often post information about their personal life, such as activities they are doing, sharing their current locations, who they spend time with, as well their thoughts and opinions. They tend to share this information because they do not want to feel left out or judged by other adolescents who are practicing these sharing activities already. Teens are motivated to keep themselves up to date with the latest gossip, current trends, and trending news and, in doing so they are allowing themselves to become victims of cyberbullying, stalking, and in the future, could potentially harm them when pursuing job opportunities, and in the context of privacy, become more inclined to share their private information to the public.

This is concerning because preteens and teenagers are the least educated on how public social media is, how to protect themselves online, and the detrimental consequences that could come from sharing too much personal information online. As more and more young individuals are joining social media sites, they believe it is acceptable to post whatever they are thinking, as they don't realize the potential harm that information can do to them and how they are sacrificing their own privacy. Everything these teenagers do online is so they can stay in the loop of social opportunities, and the concern with this is that they do this in a way that is not only traceable but in a very persistent environment that motivates people to continue sharing information about themselves as well.

In , California enacted a law that would require social media sites to allow young registered users to erase their own comments from sites. Most major social networking sites are committed to ensuring that use of their services are as safe as possible. However, due to the high content of personal information placed on social networking sites, as well as the ability to hide behind a pseudo-identity, such sites have become increasingly popular for sexual prostetuited [online]. They say that sexual predators can lurk anonymously through the wormholes of cyberspace and access victim profiles online.

The potential ability for stalking users on social networking sites has been noted and shared. Popular social networking sites make it easy to build a web of friends and acquaintances and share with them your photos, whereabouts, contact information, and interests without ever getting the chance to actually meet them.

With the amount of information that users post about themselves online, it is easy for users to become a victim of stalking without even being aware of the risk. A cyberstalking conviction can result in a restraining order, probation, or even criminal penalties against the assailant, including jail.

Some applications are explicitly centered on "cyber stalking. When a person uploads photos to a social networking site, others are able to track their most recent location. Some smartphones are able to embed the longitude and latitude coordinates into the photo and automatically send this information to the application. Anybody using the application can search for a specific person and then find their immediate location.

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This poses many potential threats to users who share their information with a large group of followers. Facebook "Places," is a Facebook service, which publicizes user location information to the networking community. Users are allowed to "check-in" at various locations including retail stores, convenience stores, and restaurants. Also, users are able to create their own "place," disclosing personal information onto the Internet.

This form of location tracking is automated and must be turned off manually. Various settings must be turned off and manipulated in order for the user to ensure privacy.

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Each location tracked allows third party advertisers to customize advertisements that suit one's interests. Currently, the Federal Trade Commissioner along with the Electronic Privacy Information Center are shedding light on the issues of location data tracking on social networking sites. Unintentional fame can harm a person's character, reputation, relationships, chance of employment, and privacy- ultimately infringing upon a person's right to the pursuit of happiness. Many cases of unintentional fame have led its victims to take legal action. The right to be forgotten is a legal concept that includes removing one's information from the media that was once available to the public.

The right to be forgotten is currently enforced in the European Union and Argentina, and has been recognized in various cases in the United States, particularly in the case of Melvin v. Privacy concerns have also been raised over a number of high-profile incidents which can be considered embarrassing for users. Various internet memes have been started on social networking sites or been used as a means towards their spread across the internet.

In , a Canadian teenager became known as the Star Wars Kid after a video of him using a golf club as a light sabre was posted on the internet without his consent. The video quickly became a hit, much to the embarrassment of the teenager, who claims to have suffered as a result. Issues relating to privacy and employment are becoming a concern with regards to social networking sites. As of , it has been estimated by CareerBuilder. While there is little doubt that employers will continue to use social networking sites as a means of monitoring staff and screening potential candidates, it has been noted that such actions may be illegal under in jurisdictions.

If a potential employer uses a social networking site to check out a job candidate and then rejects that person based on what they see, he or she could be charged with discrimination. With the recent concerns about new technologies, the United States is now developing laws and regulations to protect certain aspects of people's information on different medias. Monitoring of social networking sites is not limited to potential workers. Issues relating to privacy are becoming an increasing concern for those currently in employment.

A number of high-profile cases have appeared in which individuals have been sacked for posting comments on social networking which have been considered disparaging to their current employers or fellow workers. In , sixteen-year-old Kimberley Swann was sacked from her position at Ivell Marketing and Logistics Limited after describing her job as 'boring'. In fact, employers can even hire third-party companies to monitor online employee activity for them.

According to an article by Read Write Web employers use the service to "make sure that employees don't leak sensitive information on social networks or engage in any behavior that could damage a company's reputation. Most employers wouldn't dream of following their staff down the pub to see if they were sounding off about work to their friends," he said.

Monitoring of staff's social networking activities is also becoming an increasingly common method of ensuring that employees are not browsing websites during work hours. Social networks are designed for individuals to socially interact with other people over the Internet. However, some individuals engage in undesirable online social behaviors, which negatively impacts other people's online experiences. It has created a wide range of online interpersonal victimization. Some studies have shown that social network victimization appears largely in adolescent and teens, and the type of victimization includes sexual advances and harassment.

Negative social behaviors such as aggressive attitudes and discussing sexual related topics motivate the offenders to achieve their goals. While the concept of a worldwide communicative network seems to adhere to the public sphere model, market forces control access to such a resource. In , investigation by The Wall Street Journal found that many of the most popular applications on Facebook were transmitting identifying information about users and their friends to advertisers and internet tracking companies, which is a violation of Facebook's privacy policy.

Using social media for academic research is accelerating and raising ethical concerns along the way, as vast amounts of information collected by private companies — including Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter — are giving new insight into all aspects of everyday life. Our social media "audience" is bigger than we actually know; our followers or friends aren't the only ones that can see information about us. Social media sites are collecting data from us just by searching something such as "favorite restaurant" on our search engine.

Facebook is transformed from a public space to a behavioral laboratory," says the study, which cites a Harvard-based research project of 1, college-based Facebook users in which it became possible to "deanonymize parts of the data set," or cross-reference anonymous data to make student identification possible.

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One example of investigators using Facebook to nab a criminal is the case of Maxi Sopo. Charged with bank fraud, and having escaped to Mexico, he was nowhere to be found until he started posting on Facebook. Although his profile was private, his list of friends was not, and through this vector, where he met a former official of the Justice Department, he was eventually caught.

In recent years, some state and local law enforcement agencies have also begun to rely on social media websites as resources. Although obtaining records of information not shared publicly by or about site users often requires a subpoena, public pages on sites such as Facebook and MySpace offer access to personal information that can be valuable to law enforcement. On October 18, , the Department of Homeland Security DHS was scheduled to begin using personal information collected using social media platforms to screen immigrants arriving in the U.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement in late September asserting that the planned use of social media is nothing new, with one department spokesperson saying DHS has been using social media to collect information for years. It can chart out our relationships, networks, and associations. It can monitor protests, identify the leaders of political and social movements, and measure our influence. The idea of the 'mob rule' can be described as a situation in which control is held by those outside the conventional or lawful realm.

In response to the News International phone hacking scandal involving News of the World in the United Kingdom , a report was written to enact new media privacy regulations. The British author of the Leveson Report on the ethics of the British press, Lord Justice Leveson , has drawn attention to the need to take action on protecting privacy on the internet. This movement is described by Lord Justice Leveson as a global megaphone for gossip: Foursquare, Facebook, Loopt are application which allow users to check- in and these capabilities allows a user to share their current location information to their connection.

Some of them even update their travel plans on social networking applications. However, the disclosure of location information within these networks can cause privacy concerns among mobile users. Foursquare defines another framework of action for the user. It appears to be in the interest of Foursquare that users provide many personal data that are set as public.

This is illustrated, among others, by the fact that, although all the respondents want high control over the location privacy settings, almost none of them ever checked the Foursquare privacy settings before. Another privacy issue with social networks is the privacy agreement. The privacy agreement states that the social network owns all of the content that users upload. This includes pictures, videos, and messages are all stored in the social networks database even if the user decides to terminate his or her account.

Privacy agreements oftentimes say that they can track a user's location and activity based on the device used for the site. For example, the privacy agreement for Facebook states that "all devices that a person uses to access Facebook are recorded such as IP addresses, phone numbers, operating system and even GPS locations".

Most privacy agreements state the most important information at the end because it is assumed that people will not read it completely. The ethical dilemma lies in that upon the agreement to register for SNSs, the personal information disclosed is legally accessible and managed by the sites privately established online security operators and operating systems; leaving access of user data to be "under the discretion" of the site s operators. Giving rise to the moral obligation and responsibility of the sites operators to maintain private information to be within user control.

However, due to the legality of outsourcing of user data upon registration- without prior discretion, data outsourcing has been frequented by SNSs operating systems- regardless of user privacy settings. Data outsourcing has been proven to be consistently exploited since the emergence of SNSs. Employers have often been found to hire individuals or companies to search deep into the SNSs user database to find "less than pleasant" information regarding applicants during the review process.

One of the main concerns that people have with their security is the lack of visibility that policies and settings have in the social networks. It is often located in areas hard to see like the top left or right of the screen. Another concern is the lack of information that users get from the companies when there is a change in their policies. They always inform users about new updates, but it is difficult to get information about these changes. Most social networking sites require users to agree to Terms of Use policies before they use their services.

Controversially, these Terms of Use declarations that users must agree to often contain clauses permitting social networking operators to store data on users, or even share it with third parties. Facebook has attracted attention over its policies regarding data storage, such as making it difficult to delete an account, holding onto data after an account is de-activated and being caught sharing personal data with third parties. The answers to these questions will give an indication of how safe the social networking site is. There are people out there who want—and will do just about anything—to get someone's private information.

It's essential to realize that it's difficult to keep your privacy secured all the time. It is dangerous to keep your device logged on since others may have access to your social profiles while you are not paying attention. Children's safety may be compromised if their parents post their whereabouts in a site where others know who their real identities are.

Being thorough before posting online can create a safer internet experience for children and adults. Read the social networking site's fine prints. Many sites push its users to agree to terms that are best for the sites—not the users. Exactly how to read the terms are explained above at "Reading a Privacy Statement in Terms and Conditions" part Make sure the social networking site is safe before sharing information.

Users shouldn't be sharing information if they don't know who are using the websites since their personally identifiable information could be exposed to other users of the site. Users should take the extra time to get to know the privacy protection systems of various social networks they are or will be using.

Only friends should be allowed to access their information. Users should use complex passwords on their computers and cell phones and change them from time to time. This will protect users' information in case these devices are stolen. Others would be able to use viruses and other ways to invade a user's computer if he or she installed something unsafe.

The users' privacy may be threatened by any actions. Following actions needs special attention. A user should be sure about who the person is before adding it as a new friend. Many links which looks attractive like gift cards are specially designed by malicious users. Clicking on these links may result in losing personal information or money. A revealing photo could attract the attention of potential criminals. Facebook has been scrutinized for a variety of privacy concerns due to changes in its privacy settings on the site generally over time as well as privacy concerns within Facebook applications.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, first launched Facebook [] in , it was focused on universities and only those with. Furthermore, only those within your own university network could see your page. Some argue that initial users were much more willing to share private information for these reasons.

As time went on, Facebook became more public allowing those outside universities, and furthermore, those without a specific network, to join and see pages of those in networks that were not their own. In Facebook introduced the News Feed, a feature that would highlight recent friend activity. By , Facebook made "more and more information public by default". For example, in December , "Facebook drastically changed its privacy policies, allowing users to see each others' lists of friends, even if users had previously indicated they wanted to keep these lists private".

Also, "the new settings made photos publicly available by default, often without users' knowledge". Facebook recently updated its profile format allowing for people who are not "friends" of others to view personal information about other users, even when the profile is set to private. However, As of January 18, Facebook changed its decision to make home addresses and telephone numbers accessible to third party members, but it is still possible for third party members to have access to less exact personal information, like one's hometown and employment, if the user has entered the information into Facebook.

And the request for permission does not make clear to the user why the information is needed or how it will be used. Breakup Notifier is an example of a Facebook "cyberstalking" app that has recently been taken down. Essentially, the application notifies users when a person breaks up with their partner through Facebook, allowing users to instantly become aware of their friend's romantic activities.

The concept became very popular, with the site attracting , visits in the first 36 hours; people downloaded the app 40, times. Usually the default setting is to allow anyone to see your profile. You can customize your settings to restrict access to only authorised people; Be cautious about whom you allow to contact you or how much and what type of information you share with strangers online; Take the time to read and understand the privacy policies that are published on social networking sites.

These documents may include types of information that they will reveal or disclose to other parties. Do not use the services if you have doubt or disagree with the terms; Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing — and knowing — about you; Use separate email accounts for registration on a social networking site and your personal communication; If you no longer need an account and there is private information in it, deactivation is not sufficient.

You should submit a request to the official website for account deletion. Do not post personal information such as your address, date of birth, personal IDs, telephone number, credit card number or information about your schedule or routine. If not necessary, do not disclose your full name; Do not use easy guessable password or the same password for various social networking sites.

Malicious people may be able to access your personal profile or pretend to be you if your password is compromised. Change your password immediately if you suspect anything went wrong in your account; Do not share your account and password with others; Do not trust everything you read online especially from strangers. People may post false or misleading information even their own identities. The followings are some ideas to avoid malicious exploits: Remove applications that you no longer need. Do not click on unsolicited links from stranger or sources you do not know. Nevertheless, even you are visiting pages of someone you know, always be cautious when clicking on links or photos, because links, images or other file formats may include malicious code; Do not accept to download and install applications or plugs-ins that you do not know well.

The followings are some ideas to avoid social-engineering attack: If the social networking site allows you to adjust how much information about you is available, for instance, by allowing only close friends to view your profile, consider using this feature; Just keep your network to people you really do know. There is no need to add as many friends as you can. The person with the most "friends" isn't necessarily the winner in social networking; Be cautious to the links that are posted on the social networking sites.

A malicious website may look very much alike to a legitimate site with only a tiny variation in spelling or a different domain e. Do not post personal information that might be used by other sites such as credit card or bank site to verify your identity. Although some of these information may seem harmless e. The followings are some ideas to avoid being a victim of identity theft: Do not try to impersonate other people; Do not rush to accept invitation from someone seems you know; Do not give out your personal information unless you know whom you contact is the genuine user.

The followings are some ideas to avoid being cyber-stalked and cyber-bullied: Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing — and knowing — about you; Block or ignore unwanted people that you do not trust; Keep a detailed account of all the stalkers or bullies activities; If a situation places you in fear, consult someone you trust and contact the police if consider appropriate; Use separate email accounts for registration on a social networking site and your personal communication; Create different user lists and allow only authorised users to view your online status.

Log out the systems if a situation online that has become hostile. Do not post anything which could be used to embarrass you; Do not share personal information, in public spaces anywhere online, nor give it to strangers, including in email or chat rooms; Do not post personal information as part of any user profiles; Do not respond to online provocation; Do not confront the stalker, this could only arouses more anger or emotional attacks; Do not response to cyber-bullies, as this may usually encourage more bullying messages being received.

The followings are some ideas to avoid being online groomed: It will ensure you have evidence if you run into problems later; Be cautious to people that encourage you to chat from open forum or chat room to private one; If a situation places you in fear, consult your parents or teachers and contact the police if consider appropriate.

Be aware that information people post about themselves on the Internet may not be true. Going alone to meet strangers can be dangerous. If you choose to meet, do so in a public place and take along a friend that you can trust; Do not respond to any opportunities offered by strangers such as quick money, modeling etc.

Learn how to protect yourself from Phishing ; Social networking sites are becoming a prime target for identity fraudsters. Perpetrators could use widespread e-mail chains and spamming to commit Internet fraud. You have to learn how to recognise an Internet fraud.