Skype Me ...

Or Not
5 Social Media Complications Nobody Tells You
By Pandora Poikilos
Yesterday, was like any other day. I had writing deadlines to meet. I had all my
usual online tools opened up and ready to use. There was my GMail, my Facebook
page, Skype and the blog. I received a Skype message from a friend but realised
it just wasn't his manner of speaking. When I prodded, and I can be annoying, th
e person seemed to almost get offended and said - "Bye". Then, I got a notice in
my email saying - I had changed my password and registered email address for Sk
ype. Alarm bells! When I tried to access my account, all it said was that the em
ail had been changed and try as I could, I couldn't change the registered email
back to mine because obviously, I no longer have the password.
Next step. I removed my current email address, which thankfully I could do, logg
ed out and created a new Skype Id. I wrote to the friend whose account was being
hacked into and told him about what was going on and then I got around to chang
ing my password information of accounts I use regularly and here is where things
got so frustrating, I wonder why social media sites tell you to be careful abou
t your privacy and passwords and then make it so difficult to change yours when
you need to. As I cursed and swore, it also got me thinking about the other thin
gs these people don't tell you. Yes, yes, they all have their terms and conditio
ns which function very well up to the point that something does go wrong and the
n everybody wonders what is covered and what is not. Don't get me wrong, I love
social media. For the very simple fact, if you love having Coco Pops for dinner,
you'll probably be able to find 10 other people who do just that and be talk ab
out it but sometimes, during instances like these, I just wish things were a lit
tle simpler and a little more explained.
Can Social Media Sites Be Hacked Into?
Yes, yes and yes. If you Google the phrase "how to hack Skype", there are at lea
st more than 10 results that will give you steps on how to hack into someone els
e's account and what passwords to use. They even tell you when to do it. So, if
you can Google it, and they are writing the codes for it, do you really think Sk
ype doesn't know? And if Google can be hacked into, even though it was just once
(and like they are going to say anything different), then I don't think any sit
e stands a chance from being completely safe. But before you get all excited and
rush to delete those social media accounts, take a deep breath and read the res
t. Think of it as a house. Chances are you're going to get robbed. Equipping you
rself with the appropriate burglar alarm, windows and doors is your responsibili
ty and not the neighbourhood watchman. What you keep in the house is also your d
ecision. The neighbourhood watchman covers at least 20 houses in your neighbourh
ood and can't stay put at your house all the time.
In the same way, you must have an anti-virus (no matter how personal the laptop
or desktop is) and keep your information to the bare necessary. Credit card deta
ils, bank details, personal photos - there are other places than social media si
tes and computers to keep them on. You can store them on a CD, print them out, w
rite out the details that can be written. Passwords must be habitually changed a
t least every 6 months and must contain a combination of alphabets and numbers k
nown only to you. Clean up your browser at least once a week or even daily. Inte
rnet browsers such as Mozilla help you store information and this is great until
someone else gets their hands on them. Yes, it's very inconvenient to do things
the old fashioned way but you have a choice. Slow and with a little more effort
or easy and put yourself in more risk of having your personal details used.

But I Deleted That Post

It's an ongoing trend that most people using social media sites think they are a
ble to say anything they like in the name of free speech, delete it and move on
as if nothing happened. Think again, it really isn't that simple. There are reco
rds of what is being said and no, they are not invading your privacy by collecti
ng this information, it's already stated in their terms and conditions. Don't be
lieve me? Check this out.
Facebook Says - For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, lik
e photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permi
ssion, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-excl
usive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any
IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This
IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your cont
ent has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it. When you delete I
P content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a co
mputer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copie
s for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
So, think again the next time you want to say something and are not sure whether
you'd like it to be permanent. It may be a virtual world we live in but that do
esn't make it any less permanent and any more free to do whatever you wish with
no consequences. Most countries have updated or are in the midst of updating the
ir laws which allow action to be taken against those who misuse Internet applica
tions.

It's Their Responsibility To Fix It

This is like saying your neighbourhood watchman will have to pay you for your te
levision that got stolen while he was doing rounds in another part of the neighb
ourhood. For those using PayPal or other financial portals you would really like
to believe that all is well and safe. Think again. Even banks get robbed, don't
they? So, yes, information stored in these sites are also not all that secure a
nd even more importantly come at your own risk. Nobody will take the fall for yo
u when something has gone wrong with your account, even more so when money is in
volved. For instance, yesterday when my Skype account got hacked into and I was
wondering why, I also wanted to know if others had experienced what I had. There
were loads. People were commenting that their accounts had been hacked into, th
eir credit card details extracted and used to make calls from Asia to the Middle
East.
When I wrote to Skype informing them of what had happened, there were very quick
in sending a response today. Here's a little bit of what they had to say - Unfo
rtunately, Skype is unable to refund any money that may have been lost because o
f this incident. We urge you to check that your PCâ s security systems are running pr
operly and that they are up to date. In order to prohibit these incidents, Skype
strongly advises you to regularly update your PC's security software (e.g. fire
wall, antivirus etc.) as it is possible that a Trojan/Key logger type of program
could be installed on your computer which sends collected info from your comput
er to a third party who uses this information abusively.
Need I say more? Can they do it? Absolutely. The burden of proof and attempting
to fix the situation may come from them but you use these sites at your own risk
s. You must remember that although you may have done it all by the book and find
yourself caught in the middle of a situation where someone has used your credit
card details or your email account in an abusive manner, it is not necessarily
an immediate reflection on the site. Yes, they are prone to hackers but it also
shows that for every right way there is to carry out a task, someone is out ther
e coming up with a way to get around it.

How Much Is Too Much?

Facebook has very often been slammed with numerous privacy debates. The main poi
nt always being that they do not protect a user's privacy. I agree with this but
only to a certain extent because when you look at the other side of the coin, i
t is the users who do not protect their own privacy. As I've mentioned in anothe
r post, people behave within social media sites as though they have been brought
up in a house with no doors. They share everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. What t
hey eat, what they wear, what bus they take to work, how their boyfriend sleeps,
pictures of them in their bedroom - seriously? Think of it, in a bedroom that c
omes with an attached bathroom, even the bathroom has a door and doesn't just op
en into the bedroom. So, why would you so enthusiastically type in all these inf
ormation on the WORLD WIDE web and then be so hot and bothered about who is goin
g to see it?
The one bone, and it's a very big bone, that I have to pick with sites like Face
book would be their enforcement of abusive users. For instance, pages or profile
s that promote porn, kiddie porn, defamatory or even insulting to any person's h
uman rights can sometimes take forever to be taken down or not at all. They are
either not vigilant or seem to think that everybody comes equipped with common s
ense and one day, people will be able to pluck common sense from their backyard
trees and learn what not to do on social media sites. You must also remember tha
t information you share on any site is money to someone, legally or otherwise. W
hen you join Facebook, they have one more user to add to their portfolio. When y
ou take part in an online survey, they have one more email address to sell to an
advertiser. You can use free email or free social networking but everything com
es with a price tag. It's just the way it is.

It's Not Cool To Be Privacy Conscious

Yes, well I figure it'll be way cooler when someone empties our bank account, pi
cks up our children from their school or even sends emails with our details to m
ake exorbitant purchases which we'll not know about until 5 years later. Thankfu
lly, because Facebook came under such scrutiny for their privacy issues, or rath
er the lack of it, most other sites have geared up to be more conscious on what
user information is shared and not shared. I'd like to think of it in this way -
irrelevant of the car you drive, you should be able to choose your parking spot
and when you do park, you don't just walk away from your car without locking it
, do you?
In that same way, most sites allow you to choose what you want to show your frie
nds, your colleagues and the rest of the world. Showing a little less or doing t
hings a little differently, in a good way should not be an option that you shoul
d toy with. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of 'followers' and net
working at the click of a button but the ramifications of what we do today, howe
ver virtual, are bound to come back to us sooner or later. Even if it means your
grandchildren are going to Google your name and find that horribly indecent pic
ture of you and an old 'friend' who is not their grandpa. What do you think?