Myths about Security and Privacy in Social Network

Somehow, Security and Privacy have become major concerns in Social Network. This wasn't the case earlier, there's lot of debate going on and lots and lots of people blaming the technology for it. Is Security and Privacy a problem related to Social Network? It's difficult to answer this question. But, can technology solve the problem? No, this problem cannot be solved with the use of technology. My friend was claiming that the problem with FB is privacy related issues which is not present in g+(Note: I'm a hater of FB). But i do not agree with him. The problem is with him, the way he sees the social network. In this blog, i'll share some of my views related to security and privacy in Social Network.

• First of all, some people suggest  you not to share sensitive information in Social Networks. Well, that's a good advice to give but they try to define what sensitive information means. Well that's an absurd thing. What might be a sensitive information to me need not be a sensitive information to others. So, it's upto the individual user to decide what information he/she shares and does that information compromise the security.

• Next, people say that limiting the audience with whom you share is a solution to the Security and Privacy problem. Really? Really?? Really??? I don't think so. People make lot of assumptions which doesn't hold when making such claims. I'll tell you why limiting the audience doesn't work.

• The first assumption is limiting audience means trusting a subset of people in your friend list. How can you trust them? For example, I may send a friend request to my close childhood friend. But, how do I confirm his Identity. That profile could be an Parody Account or he maybe sharing his account with someone else or it could be hacked.  So, limiting the audience may still compromise your privacy.
• You can trust him/her. But, he/she could be using some apps which compromises his/her privacy. The app could be using all the information which is shared with him/her. Most of the people don't look for permissions while installing an app. Not only his/her privacy is compromised but even yours.

So, limiting the audience doesn't help you much. There are ways to get information you share on the internet. 

Suggestions:
Security and Privacy is not a concern in Social Network. According to me, "Social Network  is a virtual world where everything is virtual" That's it. You do exist and unexist at the same time. Never try to map anything from the virtual world to the real world. These two are mutually exclusive sets with only characteristics and not content in common.
Be careful and decide what you reveal in Social Network because no Social Network can guarantee you privacy. The problem is not with them it's with the humans who use it.
As the Chinese proverb says, "To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven, and the same key opens the gates of hell".

Yet Another Tutorial on how to download Streaming Songs and Videos in firefox!

Yes, as the title says this is Yet Another Tutorial on how to download videos and songs from streaming sites. This blog doesn't use and recommend any add-ons (even though the blog writer uses most of the time).

There are numerous add-ons which does the same thing, but, still why do i need to follow these instructions?

Yes, you could use any add-on, but, still there are numerous sites in the infinite web from which these add-ons doesn't allow you to download content.

If these add-ons cannot download then how can one download>

The answer is simple any content from the web is cached in your system for some time. In the same way any video or audio is temporarily saved in your system. That's the reason why you see buffering when you watch some video for the first time. If you immediately replay the video or without closing that tab for some time and come back to play that video it doesn't require any buffering.
 

So, that's the solution once you allow a video or an audio to buffer completely, you just have to find where it is stored and you can copy that file and save it somewhere else.

In this blog, i'll  show you how to do the same thing in firefox.

• In firefox, go to Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Network.
• You'll see something called as Cached Web Content and next to it Clear Now. Click on Clear Now to completely  delete the cached files.
• Then open a new tab in Firefox, enter about:cache and when you press enter, you'll see a screen with Information about the Cache service.
• Go to  Disk Cache Device and click List Cache entries. Since, you've already cleared the cache it shouldn't take much time to load and you'll see around 20-30 file entries.
• Next, open the web-page which streams the audio or video content and allow it to buffer completely.
• Once the buffering is completed, go the List Cache entries tab and reload it.
• It will present you with a table containing Key, Data Size, Fetch Count, Last Modified and Expires. 
• We are interested in only Data Size and Last Modified fields.
• Go to the directory as specified by the Cache Directory listing.
• Set the view to be List.
• You'll see most of the sub-directory size is zero except 2 or 3  sub-directories. (If you haven't cleared the cache earlier most of the sub-directories would be filled and it would be difficult to search)
• Now look for files with file-size greater than say 500KB.
• Try to play those files with your favourite media player, if it is able to play the file and if this was the audio or video content you were looking for, then just copy the file to wherever you want.

Note

Be aware and be careful about what you are downloading and i'm not responsible for any copyright infringements which you may face.

Disclaimer

Making use of and/or applying any part of the information and/or instructions is fully at your own responsibility.