FaceBook Issues & Fixes

These days many people live 2 lives. Our actual physical life and the other life; our virtual life. One could even say we lead double lives. The 60+ and growing social applications (apps or SNA's) have been developed & have changed many of our lives completely. For the better? Who's to say. How many people rush home from work or a party just to rush into the house and upload their *news*... to get it all onto the Facebook? Did you stick up your hand?

Some news just came out with Facebook having said it is finally going to go *HTTPS* - no more HTTP (if you want). Now, this is just down right silly! With all of the massive issues Facebook is facing these days, it really makes one wonder how in the world their corporate people came up with something that should have been this way from the very beginning.

First of all, https (Secure vs. Unsecure log-in) should have been in place the day they opened the doors. Why this simple important item eluded them is beyond my thinking. Two years ago, Facebook referred to a full-scale full out DOS attack (a denial of service hack) as nothing more than a "degraded site experience" without any reference what-so-ever to the denial-of-service attack...or what actually happened to them during this DoS.

Here is a small list of what I find to be Facebooks Bigger issues.

• Viruses on Facebook -- often quite sneaky. Hackers who want your personal information know that Facebooker's will often click on an interesting post without hesitation. If a post sounds a bit over-the-top like a headline out of a tabloid, this is your first warning sign.
• Links with catchy titles such as “the funniest ever,” or “you’ve just got to see this!" and things of that nature take you to Virus Hell.
• Chat messages from friends needing money. Old but still working. Your friend *Joe* got stuck in Toronto and someone took his wallet. He's at a cyber cafe' and can you please wire him via Western Union, etc...some money to get home.
• Donation requests leading to paypal or worse yet - a fake paypal site. Note: One thing about paypal: it is ALWAYS HTTPS. If it doesn't show that *s* in your browser, you are at a scam website pretending to be Paypal.
• Do Not post racy half-naked photos of self on facebook. Your college Dean is certain to check out your pages.
• Courtroom Bombs! Lawyers can Hammer people with information from Facebook. Don't show yourself or anyone else wasted on SN sites.

Sites like this one. Sites that explain to you how to:

1. How to view Any ones photo album - even if it is private.
2. How to Share files through Facebook.
3. How to see *real* profiles from Public pages.
4. How to grab yourself a job at Facebook.
5. How to hack the Facebook Fanpage.

I am going to stop there. It isn't like you cannot locate the above link yourself. These links are all over the internet!! I am making a point. Isn't that ENOUGH?? Facebook faces 100's of problems.

KNOW and UNDERSTAND 1 thing. Facebook is NOT a safe place to store your LIFE ON.

If you wish to lead a double life and make up an alternate personality with all fake information then you have not too much to worry about. But if you use Facebook the way most people do - honestly for the most part; I wouldn't want to be you l;aying awake at night wondering if I were next on the cyber crime list.

Face book has become a major part of millions of peoples virtual lives; and yet No one wants other people (especially strangers, worse yet - dubious strangers!) taking control of their lives.

Our virtual life is online so we need to take as much care that the door is locked; that it is not accessed & used by joe-blow hacker for his/her own benefit or amusement. I hope you lock your house door at night when you sleep. I also hope you implement every safety feature possible to keep your cyberlife just as safe as your home.

A hacker can, in all reality, steal your identity, rack up a few grand in bills and change your address and phone # - all before you know he's been to your atm. Extreme you are thinking?

NOT! Not even a little bit. Look at this link of a murdered 17 year old girl because of someone she met on Face Book. Read the article. Take this seriously!

"The murder prompted the famously opinionated British press to call for action. Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, CEOPS -- an organization dedicated to eradicating all forms of child sexual abuse -- claimed that in the first quarter of the year it received 253 complaints about Facebook; 39 percent of them were suspected cases of kids being groomed online by pedophiles." Quote from the linked article above.

Facebook Safety Measures Anyone can impliment:

1. Keep your Kids off of Social networking sites. If you are not willing to do that, make CERTAIN that they use FAKE ages, Fake names, Fake towns, FAKE everything. Who runs your household?
2. Stay off Social Networking sites yourselves! (Especially ones like FaceBook that are under Constant attack.
3. Do not ever chat with someone you do not personally know.
4. Do not ever accept a friend invite before you make 100% CERTAIN that it is the person you think it is asking.

Facebook says under "Safe Community" - "Facebook is a place where you can connect and share openly. When you’re on Facebook, you’re surrounded by your friends and family."

But are you? No. Simple answer.

All the games, questions, pranks and pokes facebook has - there is always a box that pops up. In that box it states that if you click *ALLOW* - you are allowing this *app* to share/have/ information accessing/ use of your information. I have Never once clicked on that box - (I avoid Facebook like a plague but sometimes to talk to 2 people it is the ONLY way).

If you have clicked on that box many many times, you probably have virus. You probably have a lot of things in your computer you don't want there -- like other people. Facebook offers an *apps dashboard* and even they recommend that if you are no longer using an app - Delete it!

Facebook officials rejected CEOPS' request to institute the "panic" button, as other sites have done.

"We asked Facebook to take the button in the same way as Bebo, and AOL, MSN and others had and put it into their environment so that children could report to us when there were afraid in the online environment. They chose not to do that," said CEOP head Jim Gamble.

WHY? WHY would they say no to that??