Posts tagged as:

social networking

Higher Insurance Premiums Predicted For Facebook, Twitter Users

There are many ways a user can become a victim of online oversharing.

Leaving aside the social-network related crime, have you ever though that your post on Facebook and Twitter could raise your insurance premiums or get your insurance claims denied?

Experts on an insurance comparison website, confused.com, warned that people who use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter could eventually face price hikes of as much as 10% in their home insurance premiums.

Darren Black, Head of Home Insurance, confused.com says, “criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering even using Google Earth and Streetview to plan their burglaries with military precision.

“Insurance providers are starting to take into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”

The website pleaserobme.com has recently highlighted the issue and dangers of online oversharing by listing empty homes, which have created quite a debate on the affects associated with it.

We have also heard about Nathalie Blanchard whose insurance benefits were reportedly pulled back by her insurance company in regard to her info and photos on Facebook.

So, it’s apt to say that not only informing others you are not home, but posting photos of extreme sports hobby or one that depicts your negligence etc might as well cost you dearly.

It is very advisable to be very careful about what you share online, which in the worst-case scenario might even endanger your life and those around you.

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Sex Offenders Dumped By Facebook And MySpace

More than 3,500 registered sex offenders in New York have been kicked from social-networking sites, Facebook and MySpace. This is the first time that the new e-Stop (Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators) act of 2008 has actually been used.

Under the state’s e-STOP Act, registered offenders are required to register their emails and other online identifiers with the state so that their online activities can be monitored. Sex offenders have 10 days to notify the state after creating new online profiles or face prosecution for a new felony.

It will be good to see more and more of these pervs who prey on the naive and defenceless cyberspace kids be rounded up and put aside.

There has been a lot of incidents regarding social networking sites lately and also a few recent calls for Facebook to actively do some background-check of its users, which is obviously almost impossible. But it’s nice to see the New York law enforcers taking this proactive stance on the issue of online prevs.

This act will be more effective if the other States and countries adopts it. Also hoping that more social-networking sites come forward to help the law enforcers in their quest to protect the minors.

Source [ NY dailynews]

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What is Web 2.0 / Social Networking?

Facebook Social NetworkThe older generations of the Internet users have witnessed the evolution of the Internet and World Wide Web from the mid 80s. The younger generation was lucky enough to take the full advantage of the next version of the Word Wide Web or Web 2.0 which is the next step over the first version of Web.

Web 2.0 has many significant differences over its predecessor. In the previous version of Word Wide Web, the website sponsors were in total control of the content. Most of the content were static and later became dynamic with the advancements of the technologies. With the introduction of Web 2.0 the end users of the web sites were given the authority over the content, so they are the authors, editors, and publisher of the information in the website. This way, the sponsors of the website reduces the overhead of maintaining the content while; many users are attracted to the website as it can be customized by the users.

After reading the above paragraph, doesn’t it cross your mind that this concept is best suited for social networking? Yes, social networking is a brain child of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 adopted many recent trends due to the advancements and demands of social networking. Therefore, social networking platforms such as Facebook became one of the first experiments of Web 2.0.

If you go to Facebook, all what you see is Web 2.0 features giving the end users more flexibility over the content they maintain.

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