www.lifhaus.com.sb

Google what??

The Internet and the World Wide Web are good for business and communication, but all kinds of applications have made humans more accessible than before and giving Hackers and Stalkers more resources to attack innocent citizens. I was quite excited when Buzz came out, but then then I realized that, like Twitters, you have no where to hide. Unless Buzz is configured in such a way that gives users certain privacy, more people will have access to your life without you knowing it.
In my observation, Buzz, Twitters, youtube, and Facebook have opened doors that they never acknowledged. For instance, facebook had been through multiple lawsuits in the past 5 years over privacy concerns and had been working hard to provide proper privacy to its users. Now, all that FB had done is giving you settings that you can configure for your own privacy. Majority of FB users and google users don't know how to configure these settings therefore using these social websites without knowing the risks. Twitters have done its best to keep others out from your own page, but when it comes to connecting directly to blogspots, youtube, facebook and others, their back door is wide open.
Last week when I uploaded some photos to piscasa, a Google picture storage service, I recieved an email from a friend asking if I'd sent her the photos which I didn't. I went and check the settings, it was quite interesting because your followers on Google Buzz or any other Google services, have direct access to anything you do with Buzz, Picasa or blogspot, but unless you'd configured your settings. As I said, the programmers didn't care about how exposed you are to all in the networks, rather how convenient their software is to their users. Another feature which is similar to facebook sharing in Google Buzz is the accessibility of a Third Party to your writings or what you do with Buzz. For instance, I opened Buzz and realized a post that someone made to one of my friends, which I didn't recognized. When I clicked to view her profile, it says, you aren't following this person... click here to follow. I realized that my writings are visible to a third party even if that party is not your follower. Another friend made an explicit statement on Buzz that I received. After I talked to her, she realized that all her friends on gmail could see her posts. In other words, your friends on gmail prior to the launching of Buzz were automatically added as your followers. This is a major vulnerability of such networking and I am sure that Google Buzz will evolve as time moves on.
Just last week, a woman was shot dead in her school by one of her stalkers. Records showed that the man whom Police shot dead was obsessed with her and she reported this to authority. He was arrested and jailed for stalking and harrassement, and when he came out he was out to look for her. The woman had relocated, and how he tracked her down is not a mystery at all. Social networkings are making your lifestyle less private, esp if you are not a computer literate or a computer geek but spending more time online. Once you signed up to work in a company, your information becomes a public information and if you join a social networking website such as facebook or Google Buzz, your are no longer in a private world. I tried this argument by signing up to a $14/3 months service which digs up every thing attached to a particular email address you entered in the search box. Photos and videos from facebook, bebo, myspace, youtube, blospot, wordpress etc. are all visible. This is the same vulnerability that I see with Google buzz., google blogspot, myspace, youtube, etc.
But it is a good way of communicating too thats for sure, just like Twitter! But we also need to understand our own vulnerability.
Have a great week
(I've changed my ID from Conservative to Mastermind)