International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), India Online ISSN: 2319-7064 Volume 2 Issue 5, May 2013 www.ijsr.net A Survey on Security Issues and Concerns to Social Networks Kiran Malagi 1 , Akshata Angadi 2 , Karuna Gull 3 1, 2, 3 Department of Computer Science & Engineering, K.L.E.I.T, Hubli, India Abstract: Social networking sites are websites designed for human interaction. Online social networks are now used by hundreds of millions of people and have become a major platform for communication and interaction between users. Under the gentle encouragement of social networking services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo, the right to privacy is being devalued with no questions asked as to how it affects our security and freedom. Even though the use of social network web sites and applications are increasing day by day but users are not aware of the risks associated with uploading sensitive information. In addition to giving anyone the power to disseminate commercially sensitive information, social media also gives the same power to spread false information. Due to the sensitivity of information stored within social networking sites a plethora of research in the area of information security has been raised. This paper will help to look at some of these risks and identify possible solutions to protect your personal information and your company data. Keyword: 1. Introduction According to Cluley "Social networks are great fun, and can be advantageous but people really need to understand that its complicated world and you need to step wisely". Social networks are web-based applications people use to connect to others with whom they share common interests, either professionally or personally. Users post content to the application to update connections and share personal news, accomplishments, interests and more. This content can be in the form of simple text status updates, videos or photos. People use social networks to find a new job, find new clients or stay in touch with long distance friends and family. Examples of social networks are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Social networks often offer additional applications that extend their functionality through games, quizzes which have built by third party developers and have the potential to introduce the security risks. 1.2 Types of Social Networks There are many types of social networks available. Our paper examines the privacy and security issues & gives advices to the users using a few of them. While this paper does not address every type of social network, many of the security and privacy recommendations are applicable to other types of networks.1  Personal networks: These networks allow users to create detailed online profiles and connect with other users, with an emphasis on social relationships such as friendship. For example, Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are platforms for communicating with contacts. These networks often involve users sharing information with other approved users, such as one’s gender, age, interests, educational background and employment, as well as files and links to music, photos and videos. These platforms may also share selected information with individuals and applications that are not authorized contacts.  Status update networks: These types of social networks are designed to allow users to post short status updates in order to communicate with other users quickly. For example, Twitter focuses its services on providing instantaneous, short updates. These networks are designed to broadcast information quickly and publicly, though there may be privacy settings to restrict access to status updates.  Location networks: With the advent of GPS-enabled cellular phones, location networks are growing in popularity. These networks are designed to broadcast one’s real-time location, either as public information or as an update viewable to authorized contacts. Many of these networks are built to interact with other social networks, so that an update made to a location network could (with proper authorization) post to one’s other social networks. Some examples of location networks include Brightkite, Foursquare, Loopt and Google Latitude. For an in-depth discussion of locational privacy, read the ACLU of Northern California's Location- Based Services: Time for a Privacy Check-in and their Comparison Chart evaluating the privacy features of six location networks.  Content-sharing networks: These networks are designed as platforms for sharing content, such as music, photographs and videos. When these websites introduce the ability to create personal profiles, establish contacts and interact with other users through comments, they become social networks as well as content hubs. Some popular content sharing networks include thesixtyone, YouTube and Flickr.  Shared-interest networks. Some social networks are built around a common interest or geared to a specific group of people. These networks incorporate features from other types of social networks but are slanted toward a subset of individuals, such as those with similar hobbies, educational backgrounds, political affiliations, ethnic backgrounds, religious views, sexual orientations or other defining interests. Examples of such networks include deviantART, LinkedIn, Black Planet, Goodreads and Gay.com. 256