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What is Privacy? 5 Common Sense Tips While Social Networking….

by Mike Vallez on June 4, 2010

social media five-o

What exactly is considered private when it comes to social media and social networking? Since becoming involved in social media about a year and a half ago I have been a little astonished at what people share about themselves. MySpace has been the social networking website where both men and woman pushed the limits on how much skin is showed in uploaded pic’s. Seems like Facebook has surpassed MySpace with lack of clothing pic’s due to the shear number of users 465,564,340 (via http://www.checkfacebook.com/) and the numerous men and women in their undies, bikinis, or less.

I am not a prude and am not against girl’s in bikinis (not into guys in underwear), but there seems to be a lack of modesty and forethought when it comes to information (pics, videos, crazy status updates) being placed on social networking sites. Once information is placed on the web, you should assume it will live on the web forever, yes forever. People can save any images or text with a simple right click of a mouse and don’t assume because your privacy settings are set on Facebook or other social networking sites that any of your risque information won’t show up on the web (so called friends can share your information).

Another security/privacy issue to be considered while participating in social media/social networking is GPS location services. Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, and most other social networking sites allow you to provide your GPS location. As a retired police officer I do not think this is the best of ideas for personal security reasons. There are websites like pleaserobme.com that are placing your GPS locations on their website once caught off the web from status updates along with the fact that you are not home encouraging criminal activity or at your residence i.e: burglary because you are most likely not at home.

Below are 5 common sense tips on how to prevent from unwanted privacy intrusions:

1) Don’t share naked pictures of yourself unless you are ready for the consequences – Hmm, what will my parents or kids think?
2) Don’t put anything into a status update you don’t want recirculated on the web – My boss John Doe is a #$%^.
3) Ladies turn off your GPS notifications from all social networking sites so you are not advertising that you are alone at a bar at 2am – There are creepers on the web you know.
4) Don’t always trust a picture of an individual on a social networking site because they are attractive – Things are not always as they appear.
5) Don’t list your cell phone number on Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking website if you don’t want your privacy invaded – Ladies really, weirdos will call you.

As social media continues to change our culture our definition of privacy seems to also be changing. What was private 5 years ago is now a profile picture on Facebook or a status update on Twitter that potentially millions of people can see. I am not throwing rocks from my glass house as I have violated my own common sense rules a time or two, but consider your privacy current or future when participating in social media and social networking sites. Mike Vallez

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Banning Sex Offenders From Facebook, Twitter, Long Overdue!

by Mike Vallez on March 12, 2010

A recent article from Southern California Public Radio touts a couple of California state law makers that are attempting to pass a law to make it illegal for sex offenders to use social networking sites that children, kids, teens may frequent. I applaud Assemblywoman Norma Torres for getting legs on this topic, but reading this article leaves me wanting more.

Banning “sex offenders” from Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites seems like common sense. If we are going to pass laws that prohibit a convicted sex offender from coming within X amount of feet from children then why not have the same standards for social networking sites for these scarlet letter criminals? In my opinion it is much easier for a sexual predator to manipulate a child/young adult online from the privacy of their own home, where no one can see their activities. Sexual predators use social networking sites on a regular basis (pedophiles online ) to cultivate leads for offline conversion of their illegal sexual activities. While not all “creeps” on Facebook are sexual predators, seems like a no brainer to enact a law that requires sex offenders to register with all social networking sites as sexual predators.

I know what your are thinking, you are thinking “what if the sexual predator” makes up a false name? Yes, they could surely do this and it would be hard to enforce. In fact even if the proposed legislation passes, how is it going to be enforced? As stated in the article by the Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters “it would be a deterrent for registered sex offenders.” That is true, but include the registration or “no fly social networking list” for sexual predators and change the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. For heavens sake, a misdemeanor for stalking a child or young adult to rape or worse kill, quite unbelievable. The enforcement of sexual predators not to violate the original laws of a sexual predator registration (do not go X feet from children, etc) is also difficult to enforce. In fact most laws are only enforced in a reactionary manner. However, the more provisions we can place on sexual predators to prevent them from making more victims from our children the better.

Parents, the best advice I can give you as a former law enforcement officer, now social media strategist is to keep tabs on your kids social networking. Know who they are communicating with, what is on their status update threads (read over their status updates), and ask them where they are going, who with, where did you meet them if it is someone you have not heard them mention before. Social media is changing our world and social networks are filled with criminals who are going to take advantage of opportunities. Mike Vallez

http://www.michaelvallez.com

http://www.crazymikesapps.com

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Social Media Sites Trying To Get Rid Of Sex Offenders!

by Mike Vallez on December 1, 2009

Sex offenders are being purged from social media sites due to new laws, “Amen.” Sex offenders being banned from social media sites is not a new tactic, but due to recent state laws in several states this process has been streamlined. There is also a national law under construction by the US Justice Department to require a national email registry for sex offenders. While this is an admirable effort on part of the social media giants Facebook and MySpace, there is much more work to be done.

MySpace has been the most aggressive in seeking and banning registered sex offenders from their website. FaceBook has also been diligent in launching identified sex offenders from their social media community. But what about unidentified sex offenders? What about dishonest sex offenders? Social media websites can only do so much based on the information they have, information they do not have they cannot act on.

I applaud the efforts by Facebook and MySpace, what about Twitter, FriendFeed, Friendster, Ning, and so on. Sex offenders are not rehabilitated when banned from Facebook or MySpace, they merely migrate to other websites that are not yet working to ban sex offenders. There is also a disparity in comparison to the numbers of users and banned sex offenders. Facebook registered just shy of 130,000,00 unique visitors for October 2009 and MySpace a little less than 50,000,000 unique visitors during this same time. In comparison Facebook has only banned 2,782 identified sex offenders and MySpace 1,796 as of this year. Statistically speaking the numbers don’t match up with the amount of people using both these social media sites.

So what about the dishonest sex offenders, yea, I know that sounds unlikely (insert sarcasm here)? Sex offenders do not always register for regular physical monitoring that almost all states require, let alone registering for email monitoring. They could also lie! Yes, opening a new account on any social media website requires an active email that is it. Unless the US government allows for social media websites to scrub emails for actual identification of the user then banning sex offenders based on their honesty is like the kid putting his finger in the leaking dike.

Being aware of your surroundings is the best way to prevent from becoming a victim in real life, off the grid. This same strategy should be used when online and communicating with others on social media websites. Tell your wife, children, and friends to be careful for users who ask funky sexual questions, which at first may not seem weird. But, take into consideration that if you are being sought out by someone in a social media site and you feel uncomfortable, then let your intuition reign and ban the person. Another powerful feature on all social media websites is you can report any user for inappropriate use. Don’t do this willy nilly, do this only if you are truly a victim of a weirdo.

Social media websites that are making an effort to ban identified sex offenders is a noble cause, but this attempt is a drop in the bucket. The current efforts based on the amount of users could be in my view window dressing. I wonder if any of the social media sites have actually thought about hiring prior law enforcement to help in they’re policing of their sites. The day is coming where crime will increase in social media communities. I hope the social media heavy weights are preparing for the problems that come when a lot of people get together. Remember criminals are mostly opportunistic, so be careful, use common sense and prevent from becoming an online victim.

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Marines Ban Social Media, But Can They!

by Mike Vallez on August 13, 2009

A little over a week ago the U.S. Marine Corp banned all social media, or as they call it “social networking sites” from the Marine Corp enterprise network. Marine Order Banning Social Networks Let me clarify what the Marine order constituting the ban gives as a “social network site” example: Twitter, MySpace and FaceBookNow. These are truly the powerhouse’s of social media and obviously the most commonly used amongst the general Marine population. This story to someone not involved in social media may be viewed as just another news story, but really this is much more. The ban by the U.S. Marine Corp of all “social networks” for one year is monumental challenge against our culture. I am not trying to get all “Kumbya” here, but let the Marine ban sink into your “Cerebellum” for a moment. If the Marine ban goes well, perhaps this action could be picked up by mainstream U.S. businesses and perhaps not. If U.S. businesses pickup the ban it will be interesting to watch how our culture changes. You would see a huge work around by individuals to continue their social media fix. On the other hand, perhaps this does not go well for the Marine administration and they suffer a morale setback, not sure if that is possible (Marines are damn tough). I sympathize with the Marines’ who will now be unable to communicate with family and friends through their work computers. How about those Marines that cannot afford a personal computer and are away from loved ones. How are they supposed to stay up to date with those loved ones? Is this going to be good for Marine morale, not likely. Working in the National Security Industry I am sensitive to the possibility of someone trying to obtain information from Marines’ through “social network sites.” But, is it possible that “classified” information is less likely to be lost this way than through traditional personal issues such as financial problems, drug problems, alcohol problems, etc. Personally, I don’t think even the U.S. Marine Corp can stop their Marines from being involved “in the conversation”. The social media revolution is here! The Marine administration can take the Marine enterprise network out of the social media, but the conversation will take place without the Marine’s being involved. Michael Vallez

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