"Yaay, I met a very old school friend on Orkut." Next time you say that, pause. And think. Are you sure that person you have started exchanging messages with is your school friend, and not a stalker from college posing as her. So even while you churn out personal information, trying to update her on your life, he smirks with pleasure, updating himself about your tiniest personal details.
My neighbour is on Orkut. She has a guy yelling obsceneties at her, because she checked out his profile. Her height is 4' 7", intelligence turns her on, and mom-shouting turns her off. But nowhere is it mentioned that she is just eight and a goddamn kid. She is also chatting up with a random stranger who is being very nice to her. What do I do?
Somebody ripped the pictures off my album and has posted them in her album. I have tried coaxing her through messages to take them off. I then tried threatening her, and finally swore at her. Nothing worked. So I can report her as bogus, right? I did. And so did a lot of my friends. Her profile still stays.
So there comes a new person into existence on Orkut. Same face, different name. Has 22 friends, 3 fans and 100 scraps. The last few scraps are from me declaring the profile to be fake. I tried contacting a few of her friends to see how they 'know' her. They know her through Orkut. And now who's to say if those friends have stolen profiles too?
A girl from my school says I am lucky. Her profile got ripped too, and the person who ripped it joined obscene communities and was an orkut-slut. Another girl says I am lucky she didn't rip my name too. Yet another friend says, somebody ripped his friend's profile, and even ripped her parents pictures to make the profile look more authentic.
And how do I find out how many more people have my pictures in their album. You can search for words, but you cannot search for pictures yet. I am not aware of any picture matching online tool which looks for webpages on which same pictures appear.
When I added my friends on Orkut, I classified them as acquaintances, friends, good friends and best friends. And pray why should my acquaintances be able to read the scraps which I have exchanged with good friends and best friends? And why should people whose friend requests I have rejected be able to see my album or read my scraps?
I am upset that this picture which was has been clicked at a place and time special to me, should appear in anybody else's album, and it upsets me that I am not able to do anything about it. It upsets me that the little kid is been yelled at by an arrogant guy. Random friend requests make me angry, people spelling friend as 'freind' or 'frand' make me seethe, and cheesy pick up lines make my blood boil. Communities like Shaukeen Auntiyaan with a lot of married men in them make me upset. Couples fighting because the guy declared his relationship or marriage to be 'open' in his social status make me gloomy. Serious hate communities make me feel sorry for the ones who started them.
Orkut is not as evil as I make it sound. It can be a great place to quickly exchange information without having to log on to a messenger. Its a great place to get in touch with old school friends. But watch closely and you will see an impending storm, a disaster waiting to happen. Personal information scattered over scraps can be read by virtually anybody.
Maybe by google too in the future? So imagine ego-searching for somebody and coming across personal information which the orkut user disclosed because he thought he was safe. Google is like a bad neighbouring-aunty keeping track on your activities in an online world. It might start prying into Orkut too. Oh, didn't you know - they have a right to. Its something you checked as you registered yourself at Orkut. Read this:
By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through the orkut.com service, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display such Materials.
So this goes out as a storm-warning to all my readers, their friends, and friends of friends. Use Orkut with caution. It bites.
*****
While I was looking for an Orkut picture to add to my blogpost, this is what I came across
Orkut is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends.
We are committed to providing an online meeting place for people to socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests. Join orkut now to create and connect with your own social circle.
Funny? Almost satirical.
*****
English to Orkut Translation of the day:
friendship = frandship, freindship, frenship, frennships.
32 comments:
Everything is a double-edged sword, and I pity those people who consider the number of scraps, fans and their sexy% as their status symbols. You are very right... one must be very very cautious while one is out there.
Having said that, please don't get upset over these bogus communities people create. Awareness is a different thing, but please take care of your own mental health and life. And about that person who steals your identity, photos, etc: try consulting your International Office or Legal Office at the university: they'll have more solid advice to give to you.
umm.. I heard about all this too.. 'franndship' requests are common, they are going to occur in any network community. Its because of a simple ratio on earth.
More men:less women
What scared me most was when I was sitting with a friend and I got her to search for my name and add me on orkut. In front of me, she went to my profile, opened up my album, selected a picture she liked and saved it to her laptop. She did it coz she wanted a pic of mine, but I just realized that if its as easy as that, then everyone can download anyone's pictures at their whim, fancy and disposal.
Am thinking of removing all my pics from Orkut now...
helps to know. thanks !
Hi,
I had read about this in Times of India some time in October.
Yes this is truly disturbing and worth taking due caution.
It is like opening up your life history to the unknown and inviting trouble.
I hope you get out of this mental stress soon. Our best wishes are with you.
I will spread the word of caution.
Thanks.
Everyone using Orkut is a simple player in a huge Social Networking experiment that Orkut is conducting. Most people on Orkut are Indians and Brazilians.
Orkut (the guy who develops Orkut) was in my University last month. His main pride is the social network algorithms and the distributed scalable system that supports orkut. It's a one man project with little or no direct motivation toward privacy and user experience.
Facebook on the other hand is extremely sophisticated and has all the privacy controls one could demand. Facebook retains trust by not keeping it open to anyone in the world to sign up. (Orkut was "invitation only" before, but they opened it up later).
I would suggest migrating to facebook, and reducing activity on Orkut until Mr. Orkut does something to make it better.
Hello. Thanks for this useful info abt Orkut. Was thinking of joining too, after hearing a lot from "frands" & relatives, but dropped that idea for now.
Also, nice blog you have here. Liked your posts, and specially loved your photos & posts about Mumbai. Also liked the Header collage of photos at the top of your blog site - all great pictures depicting one of the greatest cities on Earth :-)
Do you have a photo blog, where I can see all these brilliant photos that you clicked, in one place?
Hmmm... The cynic arose to the surface, eh?
You can do what I do: start deleting your scraps after you read them. Maybe you can even delete the scraps you leave on other people's scrapbooks (if you are that paranoid!) Also, remove all personally identifying data from the profile. I haven't even listed my email id! Not that I care about my profile being ripped (I pity whoever would want to do that!) Its just that I receive enough spam already to last me three rebirths.
Cheers to a better orkut user: one who is more aware of the pitfalls of social networking!
You seem to be upset by a whole lot of things. I am honestly not trying to sound mean here, but seriously, if a married man joins a random community of his choosing, why should it bother anyone except his wife? There are all kinds of people in this world and we cannot live life being upset at the actions of other people, more so if they are complete strangers. Doing so would mean making ourselves miserable throughout our own life.
Regarding the privacy bit, it is common sense that we should not enter personal details like phone numbers and email IDs on Orkut. Yet, if people dont mind (or care!) about doing so, then compromised privacy is for them to take a call on.
I hope I didnt come across as being a troll, but I feel you are being too sensitive for your own good.
I have followed your blog for sometime and rather like it, esp. the pics. Didnt know you were on Orkut. Would have liked to scrap you but seeing how it makes you angry, I think I'll refrain!
Viren M.
think Orkut should not allow other people to copy your album pictures, it would be a good way to improve the site.
But orkut has been helpful to many, I've met many of my 'long lost' friends there. i like orkut despite the cruel hand...nice post...but you sound a lil annoyed..peace :)
ya.. orkut is a double edged sword with the uglier edge more sharper! i hav walked on botth the edges! :(
facebook is a lot more secured site but it was open only to US students (thts hw it was wen i registered!) until recently! n most of da users r americans nt surprisingly. da prblm wit facebook r its communities! they r more like 'lets meetup' communities! jus da way communities shud b! but if yu r nt physically present in da community.. no use joining it!
and tht 'f*****ship' had made me puke!!!
der r so many sickos der!!!!!
Good post.
Social networking can get one into dangerous terrain.
It has been criticised and ridiculed roundly, though, by the blogospohere.
Check out my this post here, for some hilarious links
n if n.e.body wants 2 mak franship wid me on orkut...add me
:)
You've been tagged!!
hey Selma, long time. So you're in Yankeeland now, eh? Hope all's goin good.
And yeah, Orkut can be a pain at times.
i feel your pain, although nobody ripped my profile. (?). I do that too- delete scraps periodically and don't really use it to have any meaningful conversations. Just to find old pals.
A very valid point, and something that I have been wondering about for a while. I've also realised just how much information one would be able to find about me online. I've put it out there, at one point or another, and yes, I accept that any adverse use of these can't really be helped by me either.
Should I really worry about random people reading my scraps ? Or should I just be careful about what I put out there ? Double-edged conundrum, that.
I have a lot more thats coming to me right now, I'm thinking of posting about it.
But, dark times lie ahead indeed.
Orkut members can report abuse to google using "Report Abuse" button on any profile or community page. Check link for more details.
http://help.orkut.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=34318
Though google is adding more features like GTalk with Orkut they should put more efforts to keep Orkut clean and beautiful.
orkut is all this and much more. U can get most impossible ppl who behave as a friend and bitch behind u. Oh take it with a pinch of salt. Its just a fad currently, and like any fashion article it will drop off!
Hey hi, Back with a bang and straight away off to a social issue.... good one.... Actually, one can abuse anything and everythin, so there is no point to crib, I mean, I know hat u might have put some good photos, so that it serves a purpose.... But, this world is full of sharks... "thoda sa bhi bhatke, then swwwwwwwwiiiiiiiisssssssshhhh"... bye and take care....
I'm Kortny,
from Oceania ,
and I'm 16 y.o
Hi, All
I've studied English sinse this Winter .
It's very difficult for Me! Really hard!
I would like like to meet boys and girls and practisice My English with them.
Thank You
Some interesting stats:
225 communities... 337 frands... 7500 scraps and growing every minute...
I hate orkut... I love orkut... Which petal did you end on?
hey there ... nice thoughts and observations .... the last paragraph is the ground reality ... though people seem to be less aware of the consequences ... google shall be having database of almost all people in the world .... even the information we are right now posting on blogspot is owned by google since ages ....
infact google pages too sucks with e-mail harvesters attacks
the fact tht google pages uses www.:email id:.googlepages.com makes thm have our e-mail ids spam spam and spam
and the google tech center gives a damn reply when reported about this
salma...write something!
You gotta be careful...
And the thing you have to be most careful is is to stop friends from uploading your pics into their photo albums. With digital cameras popping up everywhere, it's really difficult to control.
Really, that goes for anything you do on the net..
There's more to worry about on the web than predators and viruses. We're giving everyone access to our personal lives.
Showing off your drinking triumphs to your friends? What if prospective employers are watching?
Students at the University of Bristol have recently been warned of the dangers of posting to social networking websites. They aren't the first to hear these warnings, and they won't be the last.
well dont post stuff on orkut thts personal. u have email for tht ! -- simple ... and its just a stupid networking site ... dont take it too seriously ...
ya! anything can be an advantage or a disadvantage. technology is both. the ones who use it are smart, the ones who depend on it are fools.
or fiendship may be....
email orkut help guys and send them the link to this new profile and ask them to close it for you ... they are pretty responsive .. It worked me for me !
With your permission, I am taking the liberty to link post of yours to mine ... hope you dont mind !
Wow! I had no idea. Thanks for this, I will be removing my pictures and personal information off of Orkut now.
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