Stalkbook? Stalkster?

The internet has many function and most of them have forms which are appealing (Bear 2007). Most of the time that function is to socialize, where friends and family can keep in touch with one and another. Thus websites like facebook and friendster have been very successful at allowing people to “meet” up. But in an article from Metro < http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=127834&in_page_id=34 > there is also a darker side to these things, where stalkers are using it to harm others. However, legal actions can still be taken as users can be tracked down but proving them to be a stalker is a whole other story.

Website these days only require your email address to identify who you are (Clarke 1998). This raises the issue of privacy as some of us keep private information linked to our emails. For example friendster and facebook requires users to login with their email accounts, hence if an email account is typed into the search engine, the users would most likely be found.

These tools can be misused by users who intend to do harm upon the person they are “researching” about. Therefore leaving personal information such as our whereabouts and pictures of our homes, the user may obtain information which could harm us.

Personally, it would be wise to keep information which could be turned against you away from the internet. The only reason people post on the internet is to tell everyone else about something they really want to share, hence if you even doubt the information you have, keep it really far away from the internet.

References

Bear J.H 2007, ‘Form and Function in Design and Publishing’, retrieved 25 May 2008, from <>

Facebook ‘stalker’ cleared of harassment, March 26, 2008, Metro UK, retrieved 9 May 2008, from < http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=127834&in_page_id=34 >