A darker side of Facebook
Nothing on the Internet is truly private. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but there have always been loopholes in every form of virtual security measure, whether it is in the web-based email services, or Facebook accounts.
With the rising global popularity of social media, it is now all too easy to extract information while retaining complete anonymity. Armed with this knowledge, friends, colleagues and even criminals can stalk and harass their victims to no end.
Social media can be a powerful facet of your portrayal, but a simple, well-thought, alpha-numerical password is not enough to protect one's online identity. For people who upload pictures on a daily basis and with no specific security settings no less are at great risk of becoming a victim of identity theft. Someone can simply download those pictures, create a new profile under the victim's name and easily use the profile for nefarious purposes, and more often than not, these are primarily directed towards female users.
It is of utmost importance to be vigilant, monitoring everything that you share.
Users also need to be extra cautious about adding new friends to their friend list. With the ever increasing threat of global terrorism one cannot even rule out the possibility that such unknown individuals may harbor radical ideologies.
Fraping can be a fun prank sometimes, even trivial, but it is actually a form of identity theft. One seizes a friend's or colleague's laptop or phone, takes control of their social media profiles and then proceeds to post all sorts of embarrassing information. On the surface, it is very simplistically inane and yet satisfying at the same time. Sure to get a guaranteed couple of laughs! What is not fun, however, is when someone they want to impress has to witness their painful descent into infamy. It could be any of their co-workers, professors, or God forbid, their office superior. Nobody wants their supervisors to make snap judgments about their personality.
As a person who has been a victim of cyber-bullying, I know how temptingly easy it is for people to jump on the 'bully' wagon. A screenshot and a funny caption were all it took for people to start dehumanising me.
The next time someone shares a secret screenshot of a private conversation with you, ask yourself if there is anything that is stopping them from doing the same to you and how much do you really trust them?
By Antara Islam
Photo: Collected