How safe are you when using the internet?

[Hooded Ikerus]

I mean, the internet is a place to surf the web, chat to friends, ask questions on yahoo answers...and lately there's been a lot of stuff on the news about how the internet isn't secure enough, and that putting just minimal amounts of personal information up is dangerous. Like with that girl who got murdered via a false facebook account. Websites like facebook and myspace and others where you have to give some of your details such as full name, what school you go to, your age, where your going on the weekend...stuff like that can be putting you in risk of predators. So, do you think the internet is safe enough or should it be more secure, and if so, what can we do to make it more secure? What do you think about it? Personally, I think we should be a lot more careful and the internet should be made more secure.

[Like whatever!]

not safe...you can get digital herpes from the internet

[Jay]

me i dont give a shit i have avg full with i downloaded for free just have avg and youll be 99% safe

[Jukali]

The internet is safe, people just need to be more responsible with they types of information that they dispense, and the privacy settings of their accounts.

[Jukali]

The media love to ham up how harmful the net is and yes it is a dangerous place for those people who are easily led. I live very close to that unfortunate incident with that girl who got murdered and it is a terrible thing and there are people out there who have no moral compass just like it is in real life. Like in real life you have to take precautions don't get involved with people unless its safe to do so and have AVG anti-virus like another answerer said and you really shouldn't get problems. Don't be paranoid about the net, if it was as bad as some people say it is, no one would use it.

I BTW am very anti Facebook and social networking I don't see the point. If you have friends just email them, but that's a personal choice.

[c0nfuted]

Rule #1: Never put anything on the Internet you wouldn't put on a billboard in downtown Detroit, L.A. and Chicago. That includes places like facebook, myspace, etc:

Your personal info could be sold to anyone willing to pay a hacker who stole it - personal info can be used to hack into other sites you visit, like your bank for example:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/15-Mil...ts-875346/

New software that allows your boss/company to see if you're not being nice - would you REALLY say bad things about your company on a billboard, with your name as the author:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/...tivity-664

Got any new friends on Facebook? Are they FBI agents looking for information about you or your "friends?"
http://www.pcworld.com/article/191688/yo...agent.html

Chat glitch allows your friends to see you chats in real time - for a few hours, at least:
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/05...-chat.html

Woman gets FIRED because of a tweet on Twitter she sent while NOT at work:
http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/05...t-sex.html

The Library of Congress can buy the entire public Twitter archives, allowing ANYONE to search EVERYTHING ever sent out on Twitter:
http://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2010/04/how-twe...r-archive/

Facebook is now allowing certain websites to add applications WITHOUT you knowing:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-cent...1?page=0,1

Can we make it more secure? Sure - we can all disconnect our computers and shutdown the Internet. Otherwise, someone somewhere will figure out a new loop hole to get around security:
http://rcpmag.com/blogs/lee-pender/2010/...tware.aspx

And the computers WORST enemy is the person sitting at the keyboard! They use torrents to download cracked software, music and movies and consider it s smart thing to do. They click links promising good things that are too good to be true, because they're greedy. They still haven't learned emails saying things like "your account may have been compromised" is a scam trying to get your password and ID.

The Internet is NOT a private place! Keep your personal information to yourself.