The SID Fair is an online awareness campaign and organizes various projects like using Internet safely, privacy issues in social networking sites, and hacking and spamming.
In Nepal, this initiative is being taken by Rotaract Nepal which, with the approval from In Safe, is celebrating SID fair this month in raising awareness regarding the Internet security issues, with special focus on safety aspects of using Facebook.
The members of Rotaract Nepal, who are volunteering in the SID fair and helping in spreading this awareness, joined in this edition of chitchat to share their ideas and suggestions.
Reshu Basnyat, 22, a 7th semester student of Bachelors in Liberal Arts and Science (BLAS) at White House College, Pramit Shrestha, 27, Web Develop at Drastic Designs, and Sneha Basnet, 23, a recent graduate from Campion College participated in the chit-chat.
“There’s hardly anyone who doesn’t use the Internet these days. Moreover, with the boom of social networking sites like Facebook, there are many users who are inclined and addicted to it,” says Pramit and adds, “Though we’re active users of such sites and hotmail and Gmail, we also need to know about its safety.”
Though there are many facilities that the Internet provides, there are also some pitfalls to be aware of while using it. All three of them echoed that though the youth of today are active Internet users, they are still ignorant and hardly know about the safety part.
“It’s really easy to fake an account in Facebook, and when talking online, you don’t get to see the other person, so it’s really hard to tell if that person is faking an identity or not. Therefore it’s very important to maintain your privacy settings,” puts in Pramit.
Reshu added, “It’s really important to protect one’s privacy because we never know when we might become the victim of some unscrupulous hacker,” and she points out some cases when hackers even have digitally modified the pictures and posted it in different websites.
The conversation then turned to the different ways that people get deceived and fooled by the hackers.
“There are even instances where people make fake web pages. For example, for Facebook they have a fake web page. For the word book they have two zeros instead of O, and when people fill in their user name and password in it, the website developers can easily extract information and hack their profile. This I is called “Phishing”, explained Pramit.
Sneha then joined in the conversation and added, “Facebook has become a part of life and people tend to fill in with details of their lives in it. This is why it’s important to know about its safety too,” she says.
Sneha further added that it is not only the youngsters who are using different networking sites, as more and more people from older generations seem to get fascinated with it too. “Though youngsters are aware of the safety parts to some extent, the older people are ignorant and hardly know about the different consequences.
Reshu adds here: “We all love using Facebook and it’s very secure but it’s just that people misuse it. Therefore it’s important to filter people. There are many posts that get published automatically; so it’s important to remove unnecessary applications from the account.”
She further put in why it is important to be aware of spam mails and unwanted links. “It’s important to customize your account and not make your profile and the pictures public.”
Giving an example of how people get fooled by spam mails, she explains one recent case, “There was an instance when my cousin got fooled by a fake mail that said that he got the DV and was accepted to go to United States. Such mails even make people deposit money and even give away private information.”
They all explained that Facebook has provided the platform where the developers have the freedom to create their own applications. Facebook is safe in itself but there are many applications which are developed by different web developers who can easily extract the information.
“So it’s important to keep your information private and be aware of such applications and maintain privacy,” they all put in.
“If you click the allow button for different applications, then such web developers can easily extract information and get access to your pictures, friends’ details and other important information,” informed Pramit.
They all agreed that there are many benefits that the Internet provides, especially social networking sites like Facebook has been connecting people, catering to the mass, helping in events promotion, selling products and skills.
“Technology has given us this luxury and we also highly bank on the Internet on many occasions. So we should make full use of this luxury but also be aware of being safe,” they all echoed.
Even small things that we ignore can help us in maintaining our privacy. “Don’t post unnecessary and private information on the Internet, be wary of fake accounts, filter, hide or block unnecessary people, don’t respond to fake emails and spams. So basically, the main thing is to make your privacy settings strong,” they suggested and added, “think before you post.”
Rotaract Nepal is also organizing a workshop on February 26 at Siam College in Lagankhel. The workshop will be divided into two groups, one for general people, and the other one for the IT professionals. The entrance is free and anyone can participate in the program.
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