The Trends - Web 2.0: The dark side
Posted by multippt
Earlier I was saying how web 2.0 actually helps us, now then, have you ever thought how web 2.0 can be of an annoyance to us? I shall show you how web 2.0 can be as bad as it can be as good.
Spam
Spam, of which I’m referring to the electronic mail version (not the brand of canned meat), is increasing every year. I know, although a little spam is a minor annoyance, when these spam messages pile up, it can haunt you and your mailbox. Its been estimated that on average, each person receives roughly 15 spam messages each day (I don’t know about you, maybe you don’t receve any, or maybe you receive alot more than that). In fact, the amount of spam being sent has multipled quickly over the years, reaching billions. Of course, the spam messages you receive may depend on what you’ve done on the web. Some bots are designed to collect email addresses scattered around the internet. If it just so happen to find yours, your email address might be added to one of those large mailing lists (that may send out advertisements). Also, people who have gained a reputation on the internet would generally receive alot more spam messages (do I need to state examples?…). Why do people spam? Well, it promises money of course! People don’t just do things like that, and they are probably recruited by some advertiser or service that provides PTM (paid to mail).
Privacy
Privacy on the internet is another issue. Its been a concern that some sensitive information such as your bank account number and credit card number might be leaked into the web. If that happens, you might have a huge problem in your hands. There are some people who have fallen prey to scams that involve the revealing of one’s private information. The reverse effect of having too much privacy have given rise to several problems. Afriad of revealing their true information, some people decided to surf the net behind proxies, hoping that this would conceal their IP address. Of course, this is not a good thing, since hackers also make use of these things.
Thats Just Wrong…
With the internet becoming more vast, and information becoming very accessible, some users of the internet might seize the opportunity to download whatever they can get their hands on. Sometimes, the things they find on the internet is simply just wrong… (very bad content, inclusive of dirty-minded ones). Also, there is the problem of copyright infringement, which is the probable result of the misinterpretation that every content available on the internet is in the public domain, which isn’t true. Copyright infringement cause copyright holders alot of money. There is another problem of intellectual property theft, in which one party claims that the product they have is their creation, when it is not.
Phishing and scams
Phishing sites, or sites that mimic the official site, pose a great threat to one’s privacy. Phishing sites simply exploit a human behavior, in which when we want something, we would go straight to it. Thus, users who are not cautious of the environment would be tricked into giving their credentials alway. Scams, which includes selling vaporware, is likely to result in the loss of large sums of money, which is something no one wants.
Money
All this was made attractive to perform due to the opportunity of making money online. In a world nearly driven by money, it makes people all the more willing to get as much revenue as possible.
