Since the dawning of the social networking site, people have crafted online identities for themselves. It is a form of escape for the masses, and is used by nearly everyone due to its widely free state. That’s right, communication for free. These sites have no one time charge, no monthly charge, and no fees at all, what they get by is the prevalence of advertisements on their site. Any user of the social networking site can vouch for the fact that there are quite a few ads on every page, and that you usually have to click through one to get to the next page. These sites often have their own little world created by the users too; complete with its own language and celebrities. Their vernacular consists of many abbreviations of language, many phrases with all capital letters, and quite a bit of slang. Their celebrities are just every day people though. Many bands who start out playing in garages can come to selling out arenas due to their popularity on MySpace. Many people can become famous e-stars because of their online hilarity or brashness.

One such superhero is the “PittGirl” of Pittsburgh. This fiery user was an online hit due to her frankness in talking about Pittsburgh’s mayor and her disdain for him, and even more famous for her extended rants about the evils of pigeons.  Her spark and her non-inhibited sense of writing made her a complete Internet celebrity, although everyone wondered about her identity. After many people attempted to crack it, she simply came out herself; listing name, occupation, and even posting some pictures of herself on her blog.

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This was a great video on Identity theft.  It seems that a hackers stole 130,000,000 credit card numbers.  That’s right 130 million.  What’s worse is that some of these credit cards were not credit cards, but debit cards.  People had money taken right out of their accounts.

Debit cards are dangerous.  You do not get the same protections on a debit card that you get with a credit card.  So why would anyone want to have a card that can take money right our of their bank accounts?  Seriously, what benefit is there that outweighs the risks?

Watch the You Tube video and decide for yourself.

So for those of you who thought this could not happen to you, 130,000,000 credit cards are an awful lot of cards.  Could it be that one of them was yours.  After watching this video, I checked my cards again and I would urge you to do the same.

One thing to take away from this is that protecting your privacy, and your identity, is up to you. You need to be vigilant. Think about the issues and put safeguards in place so that you are not the subject of a You Tube video on identity theft..

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Ever wonder why the Puritans set sail for America, they left because of a couple reasons. For one, they were persecuted in England for practicing their religion, and despise England’s culture. The main reason they left though was to escape the tyranny of the king. The United States was founded on the belief that each citizen should have his or her own individual freedoms and privacy. This belief has held up well over time, but was a hard won battle. At first, our colonists wished there to be no government, and to have a sort of self rule, but this didn’t work out. Shortly thereafter, the bill of rights and the constitution were written. These spelled out and put every American’s rights onto an indelible piece of paper, and made sure that they could not be taken away.

Even though our guarantee is still there, preserved and well, some people are still wary of the government. The government has done some things that make privacy advocates a little nervous. It started with the Patriot Act; this allowed the government at any time to intercept, record, and save any sort of communications you are having, provided they are solely used for national security threats. This Patriot Act was quite intrusive and Americans hadn’t seen anything like it since the days of being harassed by England for taxes we owed and other petty matters. This matter was acceptable though, as our nation was in a time of grieving after the terrorist attacks on 911. These attacks made the Patriot Act a smash hit with Congress, who would pass anything that would bolster security; we were quite scared at the time.

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Your location is an important thing. Where you are determines where you will shop for groceries, how much time to allot for such a activities, where your kids will go to school, who will they play with, and a host of other obvious things. Most people don’t think of their location as being something they need to keep a well-kept secret. Perhaps not in real life or from close friends, but on the Internet it is imperative to remain anonymous and undetected. Think about the pedestrian nature of crime on the world wide web, and how unstoppable it has become. There is no attacking or catching the criminals anymore, simply to defend oneself. These criminals enjoy getting your online data, but your real life location is the pot of gold for them.

Think about it, through the knowledge of your home, these criminals could break in and get anything they want. If they have worse intentions, they could break in and kidnap your children. Maybe they are just feeling malicious and wish to do you bodily harm, and your family as well. Either way, the location of your home in real life is a hacker’s dream come true. While getting into your Internet documents is much more feasible for them, and they can get passwords, log-in names, bank account numbers and other miscellaneous pieces of identifying information, in real life, they could crack your safe without having to worry about impersonating you at a bank.

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In today’s world of computers, information, and high speed connections, the Internet can be quite an overwhelming place sometimes. Imagine the possibilities; millions of sites, millions of users, millions of opportunities. The Internet is a place of opportunity for business people, relaxation for ordinary citizens, and expression for a social network surfing teenager. Most of the sites that you visit have good intentions and are safe. You can be assured that you will never get a virus from logging onto Google and doing a quick search. There are many other websites that are not so safe though; some are actually dedicated to luring you in with lucrative content, and then stealing your data or simply crashing your computer. With this data, they could steal your identity, find your location in real life, and a host of other bad things. Just from your Internet files, they could find your password to your online banking and go in and make huge withdrawals, and you wouldn’t notice until the huge bill for your tiny bank account at the end of the month. Unfortunately, you may not know they have found your real life location until it is too late. There are ways to avoid these problems though, and you certainly don’t have to succumb to a hacker’s evil methods and tactics.

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The city of Austin in Texas is now paying a low flat fee per month to occupy a building right near the local police department. This building is to be used as a “fusion center.” While this has an epic ring to it, it actually has nothing to do with nuclear power; it is a center where state, federal, and local police departments can come together and share information about criminals in hopes of catching them more quickly.

Privacy advocates are not so sure about this new edifice and what privacy issues it could present. They think that maybe it could accidentally leak this data to the public, and that any information on anybody would be fair game. Remember, they don’t just keep information on criminals in this data base. What if this data base were to be hacked and the information let out to the public; addresses, case studies, etc.? Who says it would even be secured properly? They mainly just don’t like the idea of three above the law organizations getting together and having complete information available on pretty much every person ever.

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You know those social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Xanga, etc.? It turns out (not surprisingly) that some of these represent serious privacy issues. These sites are used and signed up for by millions of people everyday. Nearly everyone is on a social networking site, or multiple of them. For many, it is a good way to communicate with friends and show the world who they are that day with the completely personalized profile system. These profiles can be customized every day to show what mood you are in, and you can even upload pictures to show everyone who you are. While this seems like good reasons to use a social networking site, there are many bad people on here who take advantage of the uneducated masses who wouldn’t mess with their privacy settings even if they were taught how to do so.

Recently, two California residents charged the social networking site “Tagged” with sending them false emails to get them to send out more of their personal information. The website allegedly sent these two people an e-mail that said that if they send in their social security numbers that they can sync their profiles with many of their other online programs. The two didn’t fall for it, and quickly reported the disturbing message to authorities. After a little investigating, it was found that someone at “Tagged” was just fishing for information and thought they could get these two users. After the email was traced and the man arrested, the two renounced social networking sites and their kin. “It is too much risk, for too little of a return.”, one of them said. “I think I will just start visiting my friends in real life, where I can be sure they are who they are.”

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The Internet can be found in every part of the average citizen’s life. Synchronization to it is simple via wi-fi and other wireless services, and service is getting more and more affordable by the day. Many people use the Internet too, nearly everyone has a computer and a ready connection. People spend most of their day socializing on a social networking site. Consider this shocking fact; people often just chat through the Internet rather than actually get together. It is fast, efficient, and often times, free. Business men can now market their products to a wider demographic of interested users than they ever could before, and often for very cheap compared to the amount of products they will sell. Although the Internet is indeed an overall positive ingenuity, it definitely has some inarguable downfalls and risks. The biggest and most noticeable one of these is that of individual’s online privacy.

It is not all the Internet’s fault though. People are often just careless when using it. Information gets posted on someone’s blog page that definitely shouldn’t have and then that information is stored on the blog site. From there, it will be stored and forwarded to a bunch of someone’s friends, and if everyone actually deletes the piece of information, it will still be in their heads. Prospective employees should beware of the impact their MySpace or FaceBook page may have on their chances of being hired, especially for a lucrative, high paying job. An employer can run a quick Google search of the person’s name, and upon seeing their probably unsecured blog, will gain access and see all of the crazy stuff they have posted. These pictures could turn a boss off of a perfectly qualified candidate, and do regularly. Even colleges are instating this practice, as applications are getting more and more competitive and intense.

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Saudi Arabia women are now loading spy ware used by many malicious hackers in the U.S. Why install software onto your computer that actually harms it and that people pay to avoid? The truth is a bit grim; to monitor their cheating husbands. The Saudi Arabian culture is much different than the U.S.’s, and over there, the women citizens hold very little power. They do what they can though, and tired of their husband’s growing infidelity, they have decided to take charge. Their actions are a double-edged sword; they are harming their computer, but are getting indelible evidence of their spouse’s cheating for it. This spy ware they are using is designed to collect all sorts of information from a web session, including all sorts of information that was supposedly deleted by the original user. The wife can then collect this information through the server, and use it to confront their significant other, and have some infallible proof of their dishonesty.

Although this is an extreme use of spy ware, it is happening not just in Saudi Arabia. Many people in the United States use these programs as well, but for more insidious means. In the U.S., we call these people hackers, and they often are thought about and fretted over by Internet users. These are the people who can access someone’s system from states away, and while inside, steal all their information pertaining to online sites, and especially bank accounts. The victim’s bank account will be run dry while they are still at work, and on the way home when they are trying to get some gas, will wonder why their card is cancelled. This is an extreme case as well. They hackers will usually steal an identity and some other bank related information and use it every once and a while. While they are making small withdrawals every once in a while, the victim is less likely to notice than once huge cash run.

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The social networking giant FaceBook has come under some fire of late. People have always had mixed opinions about the site and its implications. Some people are big fans of the site and enjoy the socializing potential it has. Many people sign up for the site, and it would be unlikely that you would find someone who isn’t on FaceBook. From here, you could get their user I.D. and from there visit their site and send them a friend request, and you’ll be on your way to communication. This is great for people who have lots of friends and family who live far away; in this manner they can talk and share photos and information from even countries away. Some people just love the fact that they can make an entire web page that is solely their’s, and they can customize it however they like and show the world who they are.

While this seems overly positive, they are people who can’t stand FaceBook, or any social networking sites for that matter. For one, they say that these sites represent the downfall of the coherent conversation, lacking any depth whatsoever, and just relying on Internet slang to communicate. Then, they say that these sites are just a big risk for privacy and that they advertise way to much. These are both true, the sites make all of their money off of advertisements and other types of things, and they do so quite often. Every time you navigate to a new page you pretty much have to click through some sort of ad. While this is just simply annoying, the privacy risks are real.

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