The Dangers of MySpace

Often on MySpace, users give out too much information and that can either come back to haunt them later on in life with job interviews (or current jobs) as well as even more serious aspects such as tracking down a user. So what information is safe to give out on MySpace? Good question and it’s not as simple as you might think, unless you want to be VERY secure.

MySpace only requires an e-mail address to sign up to their site. It then requires a password and that e-mail address to log in. The e-mail address can be displayed publicly or privately to only select users. It’s recommended that it’s displayed ONLY to friends or better yet not ever put in public, friends list or not. This can often be harvested by spam robots and not only that, it can aid a person in tracking you down if they are determined enough to do so. But there are more serious items that should never be posted in public such as your last name, precise hometown, age (if you’re a minor), address, phone number, IM screen name, etc.

One of the biggest mistakes that users of MySpace make is publishing their last names and then their precise hometown. If you live in a suburb of a major city such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, or otherwise, putting the larger city is your best bet and makes it harder for those looking to harvest your data to physically find you. In addition to listing your precise city, NEVER mention where you went/are going to school. This often means the school is local or nearby your place of residence. In 99% of cases, this is true granted there are some cases where this is not (mainly colleges). Posting this vital school information is just one more item of data that a person can use to his/her advantage to track you down.

Your last name should be kept confidential in most cases unless you like being lax with your security and privacy. If you’re a minor or the parent of a minor, this raises a big red flag because it’s just that much easier to track you down. I can assure you it can be done and that all of the ways of tracking someone down are free and 100% legal. There are various sites out there that list your current address (even if you’re unlisted), last known addresses, and other personal information about you and your family. It can be done with ease; trust me. This does make it harder for friends to find you on MySpace, but anyone who really wanted to be your friend would be contacting you by other means anyway and you could privately tell that person your MySpace address.

Speaking of MySpace addresses and URL’s, never use your AOL/AIM screen name as your short name after the http://www.myspace.com/ portion of the URL. This is a common thing amount MySpace users and immediately gives too much information to the wrong parties especially if your AOL/AIM account privacy settings are set to allow all AOL/AIM users to contact you (another potential security/privacy issue, but that’s your call and responsibility to check).

Obviously, NEVER give your physical home address on MySpace. That’s just asking for trouble and unexpected visits from people you’ve no desire to meet. That should be a dead given, but I’ve seen people do it so I feel it deserves a mention at least.

There are other pieces of information that shouldn’t be given out, but those are minor in comparison to the big items listed above. However in NO WAY does this mean you are safe. What about those friend listings you have? Can you trust all of your friends not to write your last name, age, school, etc? They might not say it directly, but indirectly if they said “I go to school with *name*” and they choose to have their school listed, your privacy is breached ever so slightly due to your friend’s lax security and disregard. Always check to see that your friends aren’t writing information that you’re not giving out on your own MySpace page. If they are, politely ask them to remove it.

You might ask “But I have over 100 friends! I can’t possibly check all of those accounts.” Sure you can. Do you actually talk to all 100 of those friends? If not, do they really need to be on your friend’s list? Probably not and, if reasonable, they won’t get mad if you delete them and tell them why (due to the above reason). If they do, maybe you should reconsider if they are a true friend or not, but that’s not a judgement I am willing to take on.

In short, remember that privacy is EXCEPTIONALLY important when online. The information you give away on one site might not be the same information you give on another site, but the two sites can EASILY be traced back to you and people can (and will) put the two together and data mine your personal information. Just because the information is scattered doesn’t mean your information is safe. In short, don’t give away anything you wouldn’t want me to know, as you don’t know me (I’m not a bad person, but what if I was…). Any stranger can view information you post on MySpace (for the most part), so don’t let your guard slip. It might sound tedious to keep track of what information you give out and it might even seem a little impersonal, but at a risk of your safety, it’s worth taking the extra step and staying safe on MySpace and the internet, in general.