last eema ENISA Identity conference: security and Social Networking
Interestingly, social networking grabbed the attention of the last eema ENISA Identity conference that took place in Paris beginning of June 2007, since this conference started with a workshop on the subjet: "Security Issues in Social Networking"
Social Networking sites are now an important forum for everything from political debate to marketing tools. Many high-profile politicians now have Social Networking profiles and many brands have set up a presence - not surprising considering that 30 percent of frequent social networkers trust their peers' opinions when making a major purchase decision, but only 10 percent trust an advertisement.
Such exponential growth has led many of the potential technical and social threats to be ignored. Privacy is one of the most important casualties. A sense of false intimacy can result from the idea of being connected to friends, prompting users to post highly sensitive personal information which is available publicly and often permanently. Online caches are sometimes deliberately set up for "data-hostage-taking" and can make removing such posts difficult. By far the majority of users are teenagers who are usually less cautious and more vulnerable. Other common threats include bullying , identity theft, and sexual predators
The Workshop identified and discussed the threats related to Social Networking.
The two-day European e-Identity eema Annual Conference
co-organised with ENISA took place in Paris, France, the 12-13 June, 2007.
