The social networking sites are the places where people can discover others' privacy. For example, many people are big fans of facebook. They like to post pictures, update status and make new friends through facebook. By doing so, do you know that you are displaying your privacy to other people? Even thought some people might already setup the privacy protection like only friends are allowed to read what you post, but there are still some risks. In your friends' list, there might be some people you do not know very well or just know them by faces. They can get your information from your facebook like where do you go to school, where do you live and when is your birthday. In my opinion, birthday is a very important privacy information and therefore, I suggest people should not to post it on their facebook or any social networking page. Many security questions must contain a question related to your date of birth. Also, many people setup their password like a combination of their birthday and your name, is that true for you? If yes, then more likely than not, people can access to any of your accounts easily by guessing your password. On the other hand, there is a "check me in" function on facebook where people can share where they are and what they are doing to their friends. This app might be fun to share some good stuffs with friends, but it is also dangerous to do so. Why? When some people know that you are not home, some of your "bad friends" can do anything that you can't imagine. Therefore, having the security protection on your social network is not enough. You must know what you can share and what you can not. Privacy is not easy to protect, so everyone must be careful when you launch to any social network.
Besides social networking sites, e-commerce also gives us a big headache on our privacy and confidential protection. When you make a purchase online, you must enter some of your personal information like e-mail, phone number, credit card information and home address. Some credit card information might get stolen from the web that way. I had personal experience about that. Someone used my credit card purchased a few hundreds merchandise. It took me two months to get those money disputed. However, it did not stop me to shop online because it is really convenient to do so (save time and energy). But I would choose some websites with a security logos on the page in order to lower my risk. On the other hand, every website would have a database about you once you make a purchase from there, such as what size you are wearing, your sex, your age, your favorite colors and etc. Next time when you go back to their site, they can post some items that you might interested on the first page. But if it is not your personal computer, it takes even longer to find what you want to buy. Also, the seller can sell their customers' database to other vendors so the vendors can send you e-mails or spams and advertise their products. Those kind of information should be confidential and not to be shared with others. Next time when you need to make a purchase online, make sure you check the "opt out" box of junk mail and things like that.
Privacy and confidentiality is a big issue on the Internet. People have to be careful about sharing their personal information on the web. Hopefully, we will have some better ways to solve this problem.
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