Revealing too much identity on the Net

With Social Networking sites recieving huge responses from the masses, it becomes important for us before revealing our complete identity on the net. I have also read from the Digit magazine that there are sites wherein you can pay & get an inflated profile of yours, in these Social Networking sites, containing huge list of handsome friends & with some lovely testimonials written about you. Cases of identity theft & fake identities have also been reported to the Police lately.

So whenever you register yourself to any Social Networking site like Orkut, MySpace, Fropper, etc., keep the following points in mind:

1. Restrain yourself from revealing your personal details like your Phone No., E-mail ID & other related personal things.
2. Be careful before uploading your personal pic in the Album. Upload only those pics wherein your photos cannot be doctored with. Its best only to upload pics which just contain your face - a pic that helps in identifying you from the huge database. (GIRLS be even more careful)
3. Don't write personal activities in your friends Scrapbook & also tell your friends not to write too much personal. There might be people who can regularly read your Scrapbook & know your complete whereabouts.
4. Restraining from making Net pals until & unless you are confident of your pals true identity.
5. Don't just go about joining /creating innumerable communities just for the heck of doing so.

Though this post talks about Social Networking sites, the same thing holds true to other innumerable Bulletin Boards / Message Boards / Forums floating on the Net.

In my school days I had once participated in a debate on "विज्ञान - वरदान या अभिशाप" (Science - Boon or Bane). With the uncontrolled growth of Internet, I have lately started realizing the importance of the above debatable topic.