Threats of Online Social Networks

In the recent years, we have witnessed a

dramatic rise in popularity of online social networking services, with several

Social Network Sites (SNSs) such as Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, You Tube, Google,

Yahoo! Groups etc are now among the most visited websites globally. However,

since such forums are relatively easy to access and the users are often not

aware of the size and the nature of the audience accessing their profiles, they

often reveal more information which is not appropriate to a public forum. As a

result, such commercial and social site may often generate a number of privacy

and security related threats for the members. This paper highlights the

commercial and social benefits of safe and well-informed use of SNSs and

emphasizes the most important threats to users of SNSs as well as illustrates

the fundamental factors behind these threats. It also presents policy and

technical recommendations to improve privacy and security without compromising

the benefits of information sharing through SNSs.