The Echo

Issue date: 9/3/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Erica Tuggle Somebody's watching me: Brenda Holder, a Chattanooga senior, enjoys using Facebook between classes. Facebook can be a useful networking tool but can be harmful if personal facts are misused.

Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life, according to Facebook's welcome greeting on its home page.

However, many people are being stalked and harassed on Facebook by strangers and even their own friends according to an article in the USA Today.

Michael Dinkins, Information Technology senior security analyst, said, "Hackers target social networking sites the most because they are very easy to get into."

"There are hacking groups in this world that specifically learn how to hack into personal computers," Dinkins said.

Jason DeSain, a freshman from Nashville, said: "I know that people will go on somebody else's page and look at their statuses to see what they are doing everyday. People also know where people are at all times by looking at their statuses and either go to that place or go to their house when they are not there."

Chase Kildgore, a freshman from Nashville, said, "It's really easy to do. All you need to know is the person's name and sometimes not even that."

Rachel Terry, a freshman from Knoxville, said, "You can find out who all their friends are, what they are doing throughout the day and where they work."

Many students have had firsthand experience with Facebook stalking or know someone who has.

"My friend was chatting with a guy and he asked here for her number. She said no, but he just got it off Facebook," Terry said.

Phoebe Dossett, a sophomore from Knoxville, said, "One day I logged into my account and I had a lot of comments because someone posted a note on my page pretending to be me and saying a lot of untrue stuff."

Devin Phillips, a freshman from Franklin, Tenn., said, "I had a friend who had someone get a picture of her upper body off of Facebook and made an entire Facebook page dedicated to the picture and invited a lot of people to join the page."

There are however, many things a person can do to protect their privacy and information on social networking sites.

"If your security settings are not on then people can keep stalking you even after you have blocked them by creating new pages and adding you as a friend," DeSain said.

Dinkins suggests people never type anything in a profile they would not want on a billboard. He said be skeptical about everything and make sure pictures are professional and not provocative, especially when you are representing an organization

Always be cautious of conversations, because you never know how old the person could be or who they could be, Dinkins said.

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