你喜欢惹麻烦吗？尽管没有人这样做，但他们确实会招来麻烦。他们是无意间这样做的——那是通过在社交媒体网站上过度分享。本文重点关注Facebook、Foursquare和Twitter等社交媒体网站上的过度分享问题。它还谈到了一些特殊的网站和应用程序，这些网站和应用程序旨在提高人们对通过社交媒体帖子招惹麻烦的意识。
我们在本文中讨论的网站非常容易上瘾——Facebook和Twitter——以至于它们被视为大众的新鸦片(new opium of the masses)(new opium of the masses)！它们提供了一种分享与您的生活相关的事物的方式，同时也提供了一种发泄情绪的方法。
Foursquare开创了这一点，曾经允许您在不同的地方“签到”，以便您的朋友知道您在哪里。由于易于使用，人们分享他们想到的任何东西。你被邀请到你朋友家吃饭。您撰写推文并将其发送到Twitter。你去你朋友的住处并使用Foursquare '登记'告诉别人你在哪里。
在社交媒体上过度分享
但是，您在使用这些网站时有多安全？当您在Facebook 上(Facebook)创建个人资料并在上面发布内容时会发生什么？当您上传停在您家门前的全新汽车的图像时会发生什么？当您在朋友家在Foursquare(Foursquare)上“签到”时会发生什么？有些东西你不应该在社交网站上分享(things you should be not sharing on social sites)！让我们谈谈与任何人分享东西的可能问题。
我在哪里？来抓我！
您可以将图像上传到Facebook和Twitter。当您单击图片时，它会记录元数据(records metadata)，其中包括您在纬度和经度方面的地理位置。虽然Facebook和Twitter具有删除与图像相关的任何元数据的功能，但它们仅在您使用其 Web 界面时才会这样做。我们大多数人倾向于使用手机点击并使用手机更新我们的状态。Facebook和Twitter在处理上传和共享照片的第三方应用程序时都未能删除元数据。
如果有人想在单击图片时了解您的行踪的详细信息，她或他可以简单地下载图像并通过ExifTool等旨在从图像中提取元数据的( extract metadata from images)软件运行它。当与谷歌地图(Google Maps)或谷歌街景(Google Street View)一起使用时，这些坐标会给出拍摄图像地点的街道地图。想象一下(Imagine)，您上传了您房子的图片。进行调查的人可以轻松地跟踪您，因为他或她将完整的地图带到您的位置。那不是很可怕吗？(Isn’t that scary?)
来跟踪我
在研究过度分享的问题时，我遇到了一个案例，一名女性使用Foursquare来“检查”她去过的每个地方。奇怪(Strangely)的是（或不是），她的一个朋友总是在发出位置的几分钟内出现在同一个地方。换句话说，有人根据她在Foursquare上的“签到”来跟踪她。她后来联系了 911 以摆脱此人，因为她无法停止使用Foursquare。从这个案例中吸取的教训是双重的：
- 不要邀请别人跟踪你
- 在社交网站上交朋友时要非常小心——并非所有人都是忙于自己生活的简单人。
谈到Foursquare ，当您的一位朋友到您家“检查(Foursquare)”Foursquare时，情况会变得更糟。与该朋友相关的每个人都可以立即看到您的家庭住址。您的朋友可能会定期访问您的住所，同时不断地“查看”Foursquare，从而使您的住所地址在互联网(Internet)上广为人知。如何与这样的人打交道取决于你。
此外，当你说你在某个地方时，你也发出了你不在其他地方的信号。如果你说你在某个咖啡店，你也说你不在家。鉴于使用社交网站不难找到您的住所地址，任何人都可以在您不在家时（当您在其他地方时）前往您家。
了解更多关于我的信息
创建Facebook个人资料时，请确保输入他们提供的每个字段。您是否还提供您的电话号码和电子邮件地址？如果是，他们对谁可见？如果让每个人都可以看到它们，后果会是什么？不难想象。
稍微深入了解一下你的Facebook时间线，就会告诉其他人你是什么样的人——你的好恶、你的习惯和爱好、你白天（或晚上）做什么等等。每个Facebook时间线都是关于一个人的故事。您对时间轴(Timeline)的深入研究越多，您发现的关于它们的事实就越多。
拿这个棒棒糖
有一个基于您的Facebook个人资料的网站 TakeThisLollipop.com。尽管直到最近它还可以正常工作，但现在已经不复存在了。它曾经根据您留在Facebook时间轴上的数据制作恐怖电影。当您使用您的Facebook ID(Facebook ID)登录网站时，它显示一个人正在研究您的个人资料。这个角色很恐怖，电影的灯光是那些闹鬼的故事之一。它显示了恶棍如何继续阅读您的时间线并跟随您到达您的(villain keeps on reading your timeline and follows you to your) 位置(place)。
请抢劫我
这是另一个有趣的网站，展示了Facebook 上(Facebook)过度分享的问题。它使用来自Twitter和Foursquare的数据来显示所有房屋和地方都是空置的并且可以被抢劫。它为强盗提供了一个一站式的地方，可以找出他们可以攻击的地方。
该网站的运行引起了巨大的抗议，随后管理员删除了其功能。Pleaserobme.com仍然存在，但不再显示易受攻击的地方。相反，它链接到pleaserobme.com 的评论(reviews of pleaserobme.com)，告诉人们与所有人分享一切是多么危险。
在当时的愤怒之后，Foursquare 停止使用 API 访问用户数据。(Following the outrage back then, Foursquare stopped access to user data using APIs.)
这是一个很好的举措，可以减少用户被抢劫的机会，但是，你仍然应该小心——尤其是在选择谁都可以看到你在哪里时。我看不出让人们看到你在哪里——和你不在哪里——的任何逻辑，因为你可能会被跟踪，或者更糟的是，你可能会被抢劫(you may be stalked or worse still, you may be robbed)。
打开状态搜索
这是我发现的另一个与过度共享问题有关的有趣网站。开放状态搜索(Status Search)允许您搜索人们的状态更新，甚至无需登录您的Facebook帐户。您可以匿名了解人们的言论和行为，然后据此“做出决定”(make your decision’)。
例如，您可以运行搜索以查看您所在地区的所有人都喝醉了。您所需要的只是关键字的良好组合，您可以将搜索范围缩小到您所在位置的几个街区。
了解您的邻居不是一个很酷的网站吗？(Isn’t it a cool website to know about your neighbors?)
寻找你附近的女孩
这是一个基于Foursquare的应用程序。当您登录应用程序并输入您所在的位置时，它会搜索Foursquare 的“(Foursquare ‘)签到”以告诉您您所在位置附近的女孩的位置。使用映射功能，您可以找到到其中之一的最短路线。再次，由于强烈抗议，特别是来自认为该应用程序使女性面临危险的女性团体的强烈抗议，这被取消了。老实说，你不认为没有那个应用程序人们仍然会处于危险之中——鉴于有这么多人使用 Foursquare？(Honestly, don’t you think people can still be in danger without that app – given that so many people use Foursquare?)
我们知道你在做什么
还有更多的网站和应用程序可以很好地利用您在社交媒体网络上共享的数据。您可能有兴趣访问我们知道您在做什么(We Know What You Are Doing)。如果您担心互联网隐私，本网站认为您应该停止在社交媒体上过度分享。这个网站是由Callum Haywood(Callum Haywood)发起的一项社会实验，它复制了数千名Facebook用户最近发布的关于毒品、憎恨老板、宿醉和新电话号码的公开状态帖子！
In an interview to CNN, Callum Haywood says, “I created the website to make people aware of the issues that it creates when they post such information on Facebook without any privacy settings enabled. The people featured on the site are most likely not aware that what they post as ‘public’ can be seen by absolutely anybody, and that Facebook will happily give away this information to other websites via its Graph API.”
这个有趣的社会实验揭示了普通用户态度盔甲的缺陷，并强调了他/她在处理私人个人信息时的粗心大意。前往我们知道您在做什么网站(website)查看！
简而言之：
- 小心您在网上社交帐户上分享的内容。
- (Use)旅行或在公共场合使用设备上的隐私屏幕。
- 切勿将您的密码提供给任何人。始终(Always)使用密码管理器。
- 如果您安装了物联网设备，请将它们转移到一个独特的网络。
- 对敏感通信使用(Use)加密。
如果您愿意， Facebook(Facebook)允许您仅与某些人分享帖子。您可以强化您的 Facebook 安全设置。您可能还对在Twitter 上保护您的隐私的提示(Tips To Protect Your Privacy On Twitter)感兴趣。还应该小心并检查您是否在分享来自假新闻网站(Fake News websites)的帖子。
底线是社交媒体网站提供了许多功能来保护您的隐私。您需要遵循一些在线安全提示(online safety tips)，小心并使用这些功能来保护自己免受可能的过度共享问题的影响。
What do you think? Do you agree with my views or do you think I am paranoid!?
您可能想查看在线时在 Internet 上有哪些关于我的信息。
Dangers and Consequences of Oversharing On Social Media
Do you like inviting trouble? Though nobody does, they do invite trouble. Theу do it unintentionally – and that is through over-sharing on ѕocial media sites. Τhis article foсuses on the problems of oνer-sharing on social media sitеs like Facebook, Fourѕquare, and Twitter. It also talks about some special websites and apps that were designed to increase awareness abоut inviting troubles through social media posts.
The websites we are talking about in this article are highly addictive – Facebook and Twitter – so much that they are being considered as the new opium of the masses! They provide a way to share things related to your life, while also providing a method to vent out your emotions.
Foursquare pioneered this and once allowed you to ‘check-in’ at different places so that your friends know where you are. Owing to the ease of use, people share whatever comes to their minds. You got invited to dinner at your friend’s. You compose a tweet and send it to Twitter. You go to your friend’s place and ‘check-in’ using Foursquare to tell others where you are.
Oversharing On Social Media
But how safe are you when using these websites? What happens when you create a profile on Facebook and post things on it? What happens when you upload the image of your brand new car parked in front of your house? What can happen when you ‘check-in’ on Foursquare when at a friend’s place? There are things you should be not sharing on social sites! Let us talk about the possible problems of sharing things with just anyone.
Where Am I? Come Get Me!
You can upload images to both Facebook and Twitter. When you click a picture, it records metadata that includes your geographic position in terms of latitude and longitude. While Facebook and Twitter have that feature to remove any metadata associated with images, they do it only when you are using their web interface. Most of us tend to click using the cellphone and update our status using the same. Both Facebook and Twitter fail to remove meta-data while dealing with third-party applications for uploading and sharing photographs.
If anyone wants to know the details about your whereabouts when clicking a picture, she or he can simply download the image and run it through some software like ExifTool that is designed to extract metadata from images. When used with Google Maps or Google Street View, these co-ordinates give away the street map of the place where the image was taken. Imagine you upload your house’s image. The person doing the investigation can trace you easily as he or she gets the complete map to your place. Isn’t that scary?
Come Stalk Me
While researching about the problems of over-sharing, I came across a case where a woman was using Foursquare to ‘check into’ every place she went. Strangely (or not), one of her friends always appeared at the same place within minutes of sending out the location. In other words, she was being stalked by someone based on her ‘check-ins’ on Foursquare. She later contacted 911 to get rid of the person as she could not discontinue using Foursquare. The lesson learned from this case is twofold:
- Don’t invite people to stalk you
- Be very careful when making friends on social networking sites – not all are simple people busy with their own lives.
Talking about Foursquare, matters become worse when one of your friends drops by at your home and ‘checks into’ Foursquare. Your home address is instantly visible to everyone related to that friend. Your friend may regularly visit your place and keep ‘checking into’ Foursquare while at the same time, making your house address famous on the Internet. It is up to you how you deal with such people.
Also, when you say that you are somewhere, you also send out the signal that you are not somewhere else. If you say you are at some coffee shop, you are also saying you are not home. Given that your house address is not tough to find using social networking sites, anyone can make a trip to your house when you are not there (when you are somewhere else).
Learn More About Me
When you create your Facebook profile, you make sure you enter every field they provide. Do you also provide your phone numbers and email addresses? If yes, who are they visible to? If you leave them to be visible to everyone, what could be the consequences? It is not hard to imagine.
A little more digging into your Facebook timeline will tell others what kind of person you are – your likes and dislikes, your habits and hobbies, what you do during the day (or night) and more. Each Facebook timeline is a story about a person. The more you dig into the Timeline, the more facts you find about them.
Take This Lollipop
There was a website TakeThisLollipop.com that was based on your Facebook profile. Though it was working just fine till very recently, it is now defunct. It used to create a horror movie based on the data you left on your Facebook timeline. When you log into the website using your Facebook ID, it showed a person studying your profile. The character is horrifying, and the lighting of the movie is one of those haunted stories. It shows how the villain keeps on reading your timeline and follows you to your place.
Please Rob Me
This is another interesting website that showcases the problems of over-sharing on Facebook. It used data from Twitter and Foursquare to show what all houses and places are vacant and can be robbed. It kind of served a one-stop place for robbers to find out the places they can attack.
There was a huge outcry over this website functioning following which, the admins removed its functionality. Pleaserobme.com still exists but does not show vulnerable places anymore. Instead, it links to reviews of pleaserobme.com that tell people how dangerous it is to share everything with everyone.
Following the outrage back then, Foursquare stopped access to user data using APIs.
This is a good move and reduces the chances of users being robbed, but still, you should be careful – especially when choosing who all can see where you are. I don’t see any logic in letting people in general to view where you are – and where you are not – as you may be stalked or worse still, you may be robbed.
Open Status Search
This is another interesting website I found related to problems of over-sharing. Open Status Search allows you to search for status updates of people without even having to log into your Facebook account. You can anonymously find out what people are saying and doing and then ‘make your decision’ based on that.
For example, you can run a search to see who all are drunk within your locality. All you need is a good combination of keywords, and you can narrow down the search to a few blocks around your place.
Isn’t it a cool website to know about your neighbors?
Find Girls Near You
This was an application based on Foursquare. When you logged into the app and entered the place you are, it searched Foursquare ‘check-ins’ to tell you about the location of girls around your place. Using the mapping feature, you can find the shortest route to one of them. Again, this was taken down due to an outcry, especially from women groups who thought the app was exposing women to dangers. Honestly, don’t you think people can still be in danger without that app – given that so many people use Foursquare?
We know what you are doing
There are many more websites and apps that make good usage of data you share over the social media networks. You may be interested in visiting We Know What You Are Doing. This website thinks you should stop oversharing on social media if you are concerned about internet privacy. Started as a social experiment by Callum Haywood, this website reproduces public status posts of thousands of Facebook users who have recently posted about drugs, hating their boss, being hungover and about their new phone number!
In an interview to CNN, Callum Haywood says, “I created the website to make people aware of the issues that it creates when they post such information on Facebook without any privacy settings enabled. The people featured on the site are most likely not aware that what they post as ‘public’ can be seen by absolutely anybody, and that Facebook will happily give away this information to other websites via its Graph API.”
This interesting social experiment unmasks the chinks in a common user’s attitude armor and underlines his/her carelessness while dealing with private personal information. Head over to the We Know What You Are Doing website to check it out!
In a nutshell:
- Be careful of what you share on your social accounts online.
- Use privacy screens on your devices when traveling or in public.
- Never give anyone your password to anyone. Always use a password manager.
- If you have IoT devices installed, shift them to a unique network.
- Use encryption for sensitive communications.
Facebook allows you to share posts only with certain people if you want. You can harden your Facebook security settings. You may also be interested in Tips To Protect Your Privacy On Twitter. One should also be careful and check if you are sharing posts from Fake News websites.
The bottom line is that social media sites provide many features to protect your privacy. You need to follow some online safety tips, be careful and use those features to protect yourself from possible problems of over-sharing.
What do you think? Do you agree with my views or do you think I am paranoid!?
You might want to have a look at What information is available about me on the internet when online.
