These are three well used sites which do have dark corners.
You know them, you've used them, but do you know about them?
Google
is the most popular search engine. In fact, the word
'Google' has passed into the English language as a term for
research or investigation.
Although quite useful, many people shun it for the simple
reason that it keeps records for up to eighteen months on
what you search for.
A perfectly innocent person, for example, might be perplexed
about the materials used in a bomb. That these searches are
being captured and stored is rather frightening.
Further, Google's operation in China has raised a number of
questions as it seems that it blocks the sites the Chinese
government does not wish its people to see. Coupled with
storage of search terms, suggests it might not be living
up to its motto of "Don't be Evil.'
Wikipedia
has become the "go-to" place for just about every
inquiry. Answers to what is, who is, where is, makes this on
line encyclopedia extremely popular, especially when it
treats Science Fiction characters as real entities.
The problem is accuracy. How much can one rely on an entry?
Doug Spearman, a minor actor, learned he was HIV positive on
Wiki. He has no idea who entered that information, and was
rather distressed by it, especially as it is untrue.
If something of that nature can "slip" into Wiki, what else
is being presented as fact, which may not be true?
Spearman is alive, he can dispute the entry. What about
those who are dead or who have no idea they have an entry?
FaceBook
is the most popular social networking site. People
from all over the world join, post photos, communicate. There
is one problem. You can't log off.
Any site I can't log off from is a site I will not log on to.
I don't need the world to know when I am on, and how to
contact me. I really do have a life beyond the Internet.
Yahoo mail
is one of those email accounts that "everybody"
seems to have. The problem with yahoo is that it takes a
great deal of information from you, and makes anonymity
something one has to actively pursue.
Joining yahoo mail, most of us gave our real names and
addresses, then chose our nicknames. Imagine one's chagrin
to learn that instead of an email arriving as
bubbles@yahoo.com, it is (Lucy Brown) bubbles@yahoo.com.
Hence what is the purpose of a nick name when one's real
name is exposed?
Many people use nicknames so as to create a disconnect
between who they are in Real Life and their private
interests. If one wanted to expose their real name, then
they wouldn't have selected Bubbles as their nick but
Lucy Brown.
I am not discouraging the usages of these sites, I am simply
giving you a bit more information about them then you might
have.
