4 Ways Foursquare Can Make You a Victim of Dangerous Crimes

How Foursquare Can Open Up Your Privacy to Criminals

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2714687/4_ways_foursquare_can_make_you_a_victim_pg
2.html?cat=15

Foursquare is a new social network where users can post their current location to up to 900 friends.
Foursquare seems like a fun social network to join, but broadcasting your current location to the
public can lead to privacy issues and dangerous crimes.

Home Invasions
While you are off blasting your location to all of your Foursquare friends, you might be giving the
"green light" to burglars that have been "casing" your house for a robbery. Using the Foursquare
social network to check-in to a location can be an indication to dangerous burglars that your house is
empty and they can invade your privacy. What's even more dangerous about this crime is that you
might return home while the crime is still talking place. Please Rob Me mocks this privacy flaw and
how people leave themselves open to crimes on Foursquare.

Muggings
What's even more dangerous than someone invading your home's privacy is someone using
Foursquare to attack you. With up to 900 friends on this new social network, posting on Foursquare
can let muggers know the exact location to rob you at. I don't mean to be paranoid, but with 900
friends, someone might be "scoping you out" and pegging you for a mugging. Robbery is not a make
believe crime and this social network might have opened up your privacy and made mugging a heck
of a lot easier.

Sexual Predators
Adults aren't the only ones using social networks nowadays and with no age limitations on
Foursquare, young children can be leaking their privacy to a dangerous sexual predators. Even adults
can be a victim of sexual crimes when posting on Foursquare. While you're checking-into a bar on
Foursquare, one of the people lurking in that dark bar could be a dangerous sexual predator that's
waiting for the right opportunity to commit the crime or drug your drink.

Kidnapping
Every now and then there will be a missing persons alert on the news and this is no fluke.
Kidnappings are dangerous crimes that happen all over the world every year - and often. Foursquare
gives dangerous kidnappers everything they need to invade your privacy and commit their
kidnapping crime. Your profile is filled with your personal information including pictures, previous
locations and the most recent place you've checked into. While you're opening up your privacy to up
to 900 strangers, a kidnapper can be lurking around waiting to grab you up - you'll be like a mouse in
an open field, while an eagle watches from above.

Privacy is a major issue on social networks and while these examples might sound a bit paranoid and
sensationalized; these crimes can happen. It's important to take care of yourself and your privacy
online. Be careful.
 Management Information System
Lecturer: Dr. Hargo Utomo, MBA., M. Com

Student: Vina Rosta (09/288589/EK/17636)

Individual Task 1:

Comments on “Ethics and Social Issues of Information System: The Dark Side of
the Internet”.

Hackers try hard to break into system and get your personal and privacy information
such as home address, telephone number, and other information while on the other hand, by
using foursquare, you give away you privacy information voluntarily, including your current
exact location. By using such a little information, criminals are begin watching you. The
examples of how criminals use information you give up to foursquare are clearly explained in
the article.

Foursquare is only one of the examples of approximately 200 active sites using a wide
variety of social networking models which can be the media for criminals to grab your
personal information easily. It is possible for business purposes, marketers take a market
advantage by using social networks to gather information about consumers.  Companies that
operate social networks are themselves collecting a variety of data about their users, both to
personalize the services for the users and to sell to advertisers. But, when these available
information misused, it leads people to danger.

“If the data is not stored, users privacy can't be reached.” By reading this quote, we can
conclude that prevent ourselves for being such a victim is easy, do not provide any kind of
information needed by criminals to attack us. Safe and anonymous Internet browsing is the
key to stay away from cyber crime. One should avoid giving away personal details like credit
card number, social security number, home address, telephone number, and account
passwords on the Internet. To be more specific, try to be smart in using foursquare and realize
once you check-in into one address or location, dangers are watching you.

When you are trying to be a smart user of social network, be aware of this caution. Do
not post your address, phone number or email address on a social network profile or status
update for public exposure. Scam artists as well as marketing companies may be looking for
this kind of information. If you do choose to post any portion of this, use privacy settings to
restrict it to approved contacts. Be especially wary of providing a GPS location of your home
and your current location. If you use a location-aware social network such as foursquare, use
extra caution! Do not publicize the location of your home because people will know when
you are not there. Any individual who participates in social networking sacrifices a certain
amount of privacy, but a savvy user can limit what they share.

Remember, the strongest tools users have to defend their personal privacy on social
networking sites are common sense, caution and skepticism.