Warnings on using Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social networking service website in the world. As of 2011, it has over 800 million accounts and growing each day with hundreds of thousands of new account registrations per day. You might say that you are enjoying the benefits of Facebook such as bonding, connecting, and socializing with loved ones, family, and friends, easy and fast communication and posting of messages, quick notifications and access to friends' updates, photos, and profile pages, and many more.

My purpose of writing this article is to warn people of the potential dangers of using Facebook. Knowledge is power. If you have knowledge of these warnings on using Facebook and if you are aware of the dangers in using Facebook, then, you can avoid most of the potential threats to you and your family, friends, and groups. Although this is not a complete list, the warnings or dangers listed here are the most common ones. I will update this list as necessary. I encourage each reader to share their experiences or add their own warnings on their use of Facebook to prevent and protect other people from becoming the next victim.

Warnings on using Facebook: beware of the dangers of Facebook!

- Identity theft, this is one of the most dangerous problems in using social networking sites, be rational enough of providing sensitive information about yourself or other people

- Invasion of your privacy, it is very dangerous, uncomfortable, and unsettling when people know very much about your personal details

- Facebook hackers sell Facebook user names and passwords for $20 each or less......and, they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, preying on the next victim

- When you post your plans or trips showing the dates and times, evil-doers might take advantage of your absence in your home, office, or residence, thus running the risk of property theft and criminals increasing their chances of stealing your possessions

- Many people lost their jobs or failed interviews because of Facebook or Twitter

- Links being posted and shared have great potentials of injecting viruses, malwares, spywares and other malicious computer and network attacks

- Danger of being compromised by friends that have weak passwords

- There are millions of fake profiles on Facebook, he or she might invite you to become a friend, and you might fall prey

- Be careful when you share your personal feelings and opinions

- Be prudent of posting messages that are for your friends only as opposed to everyone in the public, you might regret it later, so think carefully first

- Be careful of adding friends, connecting with a so called "friend" might prove to be a friend from hell

- Be careful of uploading photos, you will lose your copyrights. Also when you upload, you might violate a company's copyright and trademark rights

- Make sure you have sufficient knowledge of a social group before joining a Facebook group. The internet is full of scams, fraud, and online violence. You might get involved with the harms, violence, and crimes that they (will) commit

- Information that you provide, update, and post might be used against you or be used to take advantage of you

- When you click on the Like button, it will collect information about your interests, preferences, and what you love, therefore, Facebook will learn more about you

- Personal information in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow hackers, scammers, and other online criminals to spy on your profile and manipulate what they know about you and cause you unpredictable troubles and grief

- Ads, contests, promotions, and other third party applications such as games might obtain your private information from Facebook

- Facebook is one of the best sites where cheaters, scammers, and tricksters do their dirty work. Facebook is a place they call 'paradise'!

- It is very easy for internet criminals to impersonate one of your friends and steal confidential data and information about you or your friends
- Communications with friends can not be totally secure. What if there's a bug (security or code problem) that lets other users read private chats and messages?

- Facebook is addictive

- Threat of unsafe ads and unsecured applications

- Facebook is a time thief (if you are poor in personal time management)

- Unnecessary and unwanted information and messages popping up, prompting up from time to time

- It is hard and time-consuming to delete a Facebook account. Even if you delete your photos and pictures, they still remain on Facebook servers.

- and many more threats and vulnerabilities