security and social networking

[jodymeme]

Over the past year or so I've received several invitations from online friends to join various social networking systems that I'm not yet part of (as if the handful I'm already part of isn't a little too much already.) I found it curious, at first, that some of these invitations came from folks I had long been out of touch with, or sometimes

Comments

[tudgedelta]

I've been getting many invitations lately as well, mostly from former colleaguesor colleauges of colleagues. Many business acquaintancesof mine are on LinkedIn, as I am, to "hang our shingles" so to speak. Some of them have been experimenting with so-called Web 2.0 social networking, in the hopes of expanding their business networks, and also because it's the "latest thing". I am astounded that people, especially those that work in uptight corporate environments, would willingly hand over their passwords so that their own contacts can be automatically "invited" to join and do same.

I too at first was flattered to be receiving invites to join cool new "2.0" sites (you put this so much more eloquently!), until I read more about how the sites worked, and realized this was all automatated. Silly, but I actually felt a little disappointed when the form letter invite came from someone fairly close in my network...no personal note. I wrote this person back, and asked why they thought the site was cool enough to invite me to join (the site was Spock). He said he actually would not recommend it now.

Well, moving on to what I think about this: I don't think it's a good idea to give passwords out, even if they are "not stored". Hey, they *are* stored somewhere! But that's not even what upsets me most. What I find most distressing is the erosion of trust that could happen as a result of mindless trolling of contacts.

[jodymeme]

Yeah, that's an excellent point, the erosion of trust thing. I also think that these kinds of practices may desensitize inexperienced or new 2.0 users to phishing scams, as they'll learn that sharing their password in any form on any page that appears to be a trusted social networking site is a normal practice.