Dubai: Technology has empowered individuals with a powerful voice that can echo through thousands of shares and which has transformed the way we communicate but when does sharing becomes over sharing.
A study conducted by telecom operator du in light of the campaign found that of the 75 per cent of respondents who have been befriended or followed on social media by people they don’t normally interact with, nearly half (49 per cent) accepted that 50 per cent or more of these unfamiliar requests — a rather concerning figure.
In addition, du shared a series of hard hitting public service announcement (PSA) videos that had happened in real-life events in an interactive session held on Wednesday to unveil its campaign — #PostWisely — in bid to inspire the online community in the UAE to think before they post.
“Our aim is to sensitise audiences about sharing the information that could be detrimental, not only to their lives, but also to their families and well-being,” said Hala Badri, Executive Vice-President of Brand and Communications at du.
“As a responsible business, we saw an opportunity to address this issue head on, as it has been growing in leaps and bounds, and will continue to manifest itself — unless we do something about it,” she said.
The operator’s recent survey “Social Media Usage and the Dangers of Oversharing” showed that 22 per cent of respondents have more than 500 friends on Facebook and 46 per cent spend more than 1-2 hours on Facebook per day.
Inappropriate messages
The report said that 97 per cent of social media users in the UAE reported that they have received at least one cyberattack in the form of spam links, inappropriate messages from strangers, fake accounts, viruses from downloaded files, or an account hack while 31 per cent of respondents admit that they have posted something online that they have later regretted.
Alex Malouf, Mepra Vice-Chair & Chair, Professional Development & Knowledge Sharing Committee, said that the initiative is aimed at protecting every single resident in the UAE from the threat of cybercrime. In addition to alerting people to the unseen dangers, du is sharing handy tips that prevent residents being vulnerable and encouraging common sense to ensure that “sharing” does not become “over sharing”.
“We at du believe that it is possible to create a culture of responsible posting and reduce the number of cybercrime incidents through education, collaboration and sharing,” Badri said.
#PostWisely is an initiative aimed at protecting every single resident in the UAE from the threat of cybercrime.
