Do you have a friend on the internet? I am sure most of us, including myself, would say we have many friends on the internet. I am not going to try to change your mind, instead I want to make you think very carefully. We all hear things like “stranger danger” especially around young people, it is getting much more common to watch programs on the TV about being careful when we are on the internet. Are you careful? I am not.

Social Networking

This can be an amazing resource for business owners, it is also a very good place to connect with friends and family. I just checked through my facebook profile so that I could see how careful I really am. I am quite scared by what I saw.

• Photo – We are all recomended to upload photos, most of us do. If someone wanted to find me they now know what I look like.
• Website – I shall let you know the problem with this soon. For now, can you guess the problems with advertising your website?
• Wall – This is a feature of Facebook that lets you speak to your friends and family. The problem with this is that everyone can see who you are talking to. Not only is this a problem for the other person but it also means you need to be very careful about what you say. People have lost their jobs because of this!
• Contact Details – This is scary. My phone number is easy to find on facebook through the phone book feature, I also have access to many of your phone numbers. Why? Because facebook asked for it. My profile also shows my “hometown”, now they are very close to me.

I think you should check your profiles. I for one am just about to change it!

Whois

This is another scary concept. Anyone can check a websites whois (www.whois.sc is one way) which can be very useful for contacting the domain owner. I find it useful as I do not usually get answers from any privacy controlled emails. But the problem is simple… everyone in the world has access to your address, phone number and email address.

Luckily this only applies for people that own a domain name. Hmm… I have a strong feeling that most people that read this blog own at least one domain name.

Email

I was not planning to include this section, however I am currently watching a crime show on TV where they ran an IP scan using an email to find somebody’s address. This is possible and does happen. Which means everybody we are in email contact, many of us use email a lot, have access to where we live.

Internet Messaging

I use it. You probably do too. This develops trust between contacts, I would be the first to admit to trusting people, so who can we trust? I have not yet devised a way to tell whether somebody is trustworthy or not. You may have read my article about Lonely Designs. I lost almost all of the money I sold Lonely Designs for just because I trusted someone I knew on MSN and another forum I use. I do not think I have ever felt so stupid in my life! Please, do not let this happen to you.

I really hope this has made you think. It made me think. The internet changed the meaning of friendship so much that trust seems to be easy to gain now. Please comment with your opinions. Do you use Social Networking? Do you trust your online “friends”?

Thank you,

Shane Hudson