The dangers of social websites
Dear Nanay,
I just read your column about Facebook (August 3, 2009) and want to enlighten readers on the dangers of social websites.
I am an IT professional who is suspicious of the rapid explosion of social websites like Facebook, Friendster and others. There is the danger of joining them and then falling victim to identity theft, where one’s identity is hijacked by unscrupulous people. The criminals can victimize you by charging items or services to your name! Clearing your name from this type of crime is very laborious.
It is also a very common practice for websites to send secret programs to trawl your hard drive for the e-mail addresses of friends/contacts, then send out invitations in the name of that friend without their knowledge to lure new members and expand their membership for advertising ratings. A website’s advertising revenue is directly proportional to their popularity; that’s why they want membership expanded.
If you want to share photos with friends, there are other options on the Web that allows you private control over who you want to share it with and there are free sites for that. You don’t need to join a social website, where your personal ID could be exposed. Remember that the Web has been used by criminal elements and we just have to be careful and try to protect ourselves. Start protecting yourself by creating IDs that won’t expose your real name and gender, which could be exploited by criminal elements.
Wilson
Dear Wilson,
You give excellent advice. In anything that people do, whether it is on the Internet or in real life, you should always be careful. Your identity can always be stolen regardless of where you share information.
Take precautions. Do not reveal more information than necessary. And always be careful. For parents, do your best to try and monitor your children’s online activities just as you would in the real world.
The moral of the story is always be careful and sometimes a little paranoia does not hurt.
Sincerely,
Nanay
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A Question of Outsourcing
Dear Nanay,
My business partner and I are debating about the outsourcing of certain functions in our small company. Specifically, we often require artworks to be done. My partner wants to hire a full-time in-house artist. On the other hand, I want to keep our office overhead at a minimum and would rather outsource our needs. My point is that we don’t have enough work to keep the artist busy all the time so we should just outsource the work. At least we are only paying for what we need instead of keeping an artist on the payroll even when we don’t need him. What do you think?
JANE M.
Dear Jane,
The question of outsourcing support functions in a company is always a tricky one and there are always pros and cons.
In your situation, having an artist on hand all the time will make for more responsive and efficient work. If you need to have something done ASAP, then obviously it is much better for you to have someone physically in your office and on your payroll. The downside, of course, is you may incur additional costs. Don’t forget that having someone on your payroll will probably entail some hidden costs beyond that person’s salary and benefits. In addition, as you already mentioned, if you don’t have enough work to keep him busy all the time, you may often feel that you are paying for nothing.
I think the biggest factor that makes a case for outsourcing is that if you are unhappy with your current provider or supplier, then it is very easy for you to change them. For example, if the time comes that you feel the artist you are outsourcing to has “run out of ideas,” then it is very easy for you to get someone else. Kung nasa payroll mo yung artist, hindi mo siya puwedeng basta na lang palitan. (If the artist is on your payroll, you can’t just change him.)
At the end of the day, there are always arguments on both sides. Some people prefer to outsource while others prefer to have people in-house. Most often, people use the cost as a deciding factor. But I think you have to look beyond this. Which option will yield better productivity for your company? Where will you have better-quality results? You also have to weigh the convenience and the efficiency factors.
Maybe you can try outsourcing first and see how that works out. If you are satisfied then you can keep that arrangement. If not, then it is easy for you to switch to an in-house model. Do the outsource first because it is easier to switch from outsource to in-house than the other way around.
Sincerely,
Nanay
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