Internet

Law-abiding social network user. Why add strangers as friends on a social network

Social networks have become the main invention of the last decades and their appearance has significantly changed the psychology of interpersonal communication. If earlier the circle of friends included only those people with whom we are in direct contact, now each user has the number of virtual friends that exceeds all conceivable boundaries. So, why add strangers as friends and how productive is such friendship? Sociologists around the world are looking for answers to these questions.

Why people are added as friends on VK, classmates and Facebook

Any social network has no specific geographical boundaries and you can "make friends" with a person who lives in another corner of the planet. If you now open a list of your friends in Odnoklassniki, Contact or any other social network, then some of your acquaintances will be completely unfamiliar. Why do people add to you as friends without knowing anything about you and not even trying to communicate?

This phenomenon has been studied by many scientists, and studies have revealed an interesting trend. Friendship in a social network is very different from real communication. If we like to spend time with friends whom we see in reality, communicate and share impressions, then virtual friends do not require constant attention to their person. The fact of accepting friendship does not burden you with anything and you do not need to periodically ask a stranger how he is doing. Rather, on the contrary, an attempt to get close can be perceived as an encroachment on personal space and a person can add you to the black list.

The reasons for sending a friend request can be varied:

You have an interesting page. The person just became interested in what you post and he will be glad to read something from your messages again. However, this form of friendship does not imply feedback and you don't even have to reply to his comment after the post.
The person knows you personally. Social networks are a great opportunity to find the neighbor boy with whom you climbed garages in your distant childhood. A former classmate, a forgotten girlfriend, or even a distant relative can knock on your VK friends. In this case, the social network plays the role of an excellent tool for communicating with people with whom contact has been lost for a long time.
Fraud. Sad as it may seem, but some of those who want to make a virtual acquaintance with you are counting on making money on it. Such friends begin to offer products that you are not interested in or decide to openly extort money.

Despite the danger, modern users are happy to add strangers as friends.

An interesting study was conducted in one of the institutes in England. A focus group was assembled, which included people of different sexes and with different hobbies, but actively using the social network. They were divided into two separate groups. The first was shown a page with a profile of a certain person, and the second sent a friend request. After that, they asked what they thought of this person. Those who “befriended” a person spoke more positively about him than those who simply studied his profile.

Psychology of interpersonal communication in social networks

Traditional concepts of friendship have been modified under the influence of the Internet. For example, we feel attached to people who are on our friends list. But, at the same time, we do not have a desire to communicate with them every day. Virtual friendship can be based on common hobbies, or it can just be an option in the social network itself. As a rule, many of us flaunt large quantity friends, even though we can't even give their real names.

V last paragraph hides another psychological factor. Many people judge a new person by the number of friends they have. social network. However, on this issue, different users have completely opposite opinions. Some of us will be surprised and immediately want to be friends with this person, while others will consider him either too infantile or a scammer.

Those who actively use the social network need to remember that the rules of friendship in this world can differ significantly from the usual ideas. There is nothing wrong with accepting an offer of friendship from a complete stranger. But you will have to make friends according to the rules of the virtual world. You should not impose communication on a new friend or demand attention to your person.

Sociological studies of social network users have shown interesting results. If you unfollow a person as a friend, it causes a backlash. Even if there was no communication between you.

Online scammers

The most dangerous result of adding strangers as friends is fraud. It is often expressed in the offer of goods or the extortion of money. For example, you strike up a conversation with a stranger and he talks about great investments or initiates you into the tragic events that happened to him. Most often, after such a dialogue, a request for a small amount of money will follow, after which a new friend is lost on the Internet. Of course, a completely law-abiding user may also find himself in a difficult situation, so such requests should not be immediately attributed to a criminal category.

There are several basic ways to identify a scammer. Take a look at his page. What avatar he uses, the number of his friends and the completeness of the profile. For petty fraud, they rarely create full-fledged accounts and manage only basic information. So you yourself are largely responsible for your own safety, and to identify a fraudster, you only need to find Sherlock Holmes in yourself.

The social network is a phenomenon that has changed the basis of communication. You can find many reasons not to add strangers and just as many advantages to the decision to accept anyone with open arms. If some methods are already well studied by a fraudster, then new ones will always appear. However, old acquaintances who found you quite by accident will just scroll through your profile next time and you will never meet in person.

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“For a law-abiding user, this will not only change nothing, a law-abiding user will only benefit from this,” Denis Davydov, director of the Internet Security League, told VZGLYAD newspaper, commenting on new measures to deanonymize users on social networks. In his opinion, the measures will help prevent new terrorist attacks on Russian territory.

At the end of last week, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications published for discussion a draft version of its order on the regulation of requirements for equipment used in information systems by organizers of the dissemination of information (ARI) on the Internet (messengers, social networks, and so on, the ARI registry is maintained by Roskomnadzor). So far, the text of the document has only been put up for public discussion (until September 6) on the federal portal of draft regulations, and anyone can express their wishes.

The order has already caused a wide public outcry - it lists what data about users of the ORI will be required to transfer to special services, in particular the FSB, upon request. Such user information includes a nickname (pseudonym), passport details, residential address, Email, IP address, information about payments, message texts, transmitted and received files, information about knowledge of foreign languages, as well as other social network users indicated as relatives.

About what goals the new measures pursue and why Russians should not worry about their introduction, as well as about similar practices in other countries, in an interview with the VZGLYAD newspaper, the executive director of the League spoke safe internet Denis Davydov.

VZGLYAD: Denis Nikolaevich, can the proposed set of measures help prevent new terrorist attacks on Russian territory?

Denis Davydov: Yes that's right. This is the real, true purpose of these innovations. Finally, our law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies will receive normal, effective tools in order to respond in a timely manner to terrorist threats. This is exactly what was missing. If such a system is created, then it is clear that its main area of application is anti-terror.

VZGLYAD: Will this facilitate the conduct of operational-search activities?

D.D.: Yes, significant. Previously, businessmen did their secret dark deeds - robbed, scammed - on the Internet, and in order to find them, police officers had to perform feats. Now it will be much easier to do it.

VZGLYAD: In order to analyze such a large amount of information, you will probably need a large number of specialists? But there are always not enough people, and besides, it can be very costly.

D.D.: The thing is, thanks to modern technologies analysis of large data arrays, most of them will be performed by algorithms and - in the future - programs artificial intelligence. The intervention of living people, specialists will be required only in cases where the information is really of value, importance - and is necessary to fulfill the duties assigned to law enforcement officers.

VZGLYAD: Thus, the system will, in fact, be sharpened for the analysis of all this information using Big data technology?

D.D.: In general, any such systems that store hundreds of millions of records, metadata and other information are, of course, focused primarily on storing and convenient information retrieval. That is, such systems can offer some conclusions that need additional verification by law enforcement and special services. When conducting operational-search activities or when investigating some crimes, this data will be very useful.

VZGLYAD: A year ago, there were reports that the authorities in Russia are already using Big data technologies (big data technology).

D.D.: It is difficult to say how direct Big data technology is. Now, as far as I know, the state is only discussing the architecture and those authorized bodies and organizations that will collect and process such data. However, it can be said that both the state and private business are partially engaged in this.

If we look at the operators, for example, cellular communication or to credit and banking institutions, for example, to Sberbank, why are they not operators of "big data" who process them and draw some conclusions based on this analysis?

VZGLYAD: Is it true that for this system all personal information will be a kind of "white noise", and certain constructions and phrases that may be associated with plans for terrorist attacks will be "highlighted"?

D.D.: The fact is that the information that is collected will not affect the right of citizens to privacy and privacy of correspondence. This will be, first of all, data that allows you to identify a particular user. In general, this is a system that will collect and store this data.

Such information will be processed only upon request, only by court order. So law enforcement and intelligence officers will not just have access, for example, to letters that users send to each other.

The government is talking about a ban on anonymity. It means that for the state, for law enforcement agencies and special services there should be no anonymous users. But, nevertheless, each of these users has the right to privacy, to the secret of communication. Therefore, the state demonstrates and declares in every possible way that it will protect this right. Meanwhile, various transnational Internet giants violate this right.

A lot of people say: "That's all gone, now the FSB will know the user's login and IP address." So what? This will help us all avoid problems with terrorists. At the same time, for some reason, few people say that the same companies Google, Amazon, Facebook not only store users' personal messages, but also use them at their own discretion. That is, they read private messages. Google directly says, they say, “yes, we read your correspondence.”

It turns out that opposition activists are outraged by the fact that the FSB has the authority to request personal data of users, although this ensures our security, and for some reason they are not outraged by the fact that an American Internet company calmly reads the correspondence of all users of its services. This is a very strange approach.

VZGLYAD: For an ordinary law-abiding user, this will not change anything at all?

D.D.: For a law-abiding user, this will not only change nothing, a law-abiding user will only benefit from this. I can confidently cite China as an example. Many begin to laugh and giggle when it comes to China, they tell some scary stories about censorship, how bad everything is there. In fact, in China, after the ban on anonymity, the Internet economy began to grow faster, the number of frauds on the network decreased. And ordinary citizens benefit from this, primarily in terms of security.

I am sure that the introduction of such a system will allow us to win not only in terms of security and peace of mind in relation to the terrorist threat, but also, thanks to new tools and opportunities that law enforcement agencies will receive, it will increase the detection of many crimes that are committed using the Internet.

Here it seems to me, by the way, that it is logical if not only the FSB, but also the Ministry of Internal Affairs will get access to these tools. And, for example, those cases of online pedophiles who seduce children will get off the ground. Just because now it is thanks to the Internet that they are encrypted, they exchange advice on how to seduce children at some closed, secret sites.

VZGLYAD: You have already touched on this in part. When discussing this project, many bloggers and other critics forget that our life, our security often depends on those people who protect our peace - from the special services, from internal organs. Why?

D.D.: It really is. Our security depends entirely on the efficiency and effectiveness of the system of operational-search measures, as well as on the interaction of society with law enforcement agencies and special services. Because it is not the task of the security agencies to solve these issues exclusively. Alone, without relying on society, this is very difficult to do. It turns out to be a very strange story. A lot is being done to ensure that the authorities have modern tools to ensure our security, but here there are some people who are dissatisfied with everything and say strange things that this should not be done. Although in general the whole world is on the path of tightening control.

In general, activists who advocate online anonymity somehow do not understand one thing. It lies in the fact that anonymity from the network is gone forever. She is no more - and never will be.

VZGLYAD: Did she ever exist at all?

D.D.: She was very conditional. And law enforcement agencies with a high degree of probability could establish this or that person in the network, even if it took some amount of time. Now it will need to be spent less, and the freed time can be used to search for criminals, terrorists and extremists.

VZGLYAD: You said that the whole world is following the path of limiting anonymity on the Internet. The British Parliament last year approved a law that obliges telecom operators to keep data for a year on all sites visited by their users and communication services used by subscribers, and also determines under what circumstances the authorities have the right to hack users' computers. Why do our opposition-minded bloggers ignore this fact?

D.D.: Some bloggers have an idea that the whole world is different, but here in Russia the “bloody regime” is strangling the rights and freedoms of man and citizen. This is such an artificial world in which they live. They created it for themselves. And they don't even bother to follow the news from other countries. And the news from other countries is about the same order. The state in all these countries provides control over the network, over data transmission.

In Germany, for example, the question of what can and cannot be written on social networks is already regulated at the legislative level. And that prohibited information in social networks should be deleted by the Internet sites themselves. Of course, if our various bloggers - opposition and non-opposition - were simply more interested in this issue, they would understand that this is such a global trend. It is not associated with any strangulation of freedoms, but is associated with the banal provision of security.

We live in the 21st century, and modern terrorists are not just some bearded men riding a donkey, modern terrorists are competent people with programming and cryptography skills. In addition, they bring in programmers to wage a cyber war against the "infidels" in their understanding. These people have sufficient skills to arrange a blackout in any of the European cities - turn off power plants, water towers, transport. Therefore, of course, all over the world, states are trying to somehow resist this. One solution to this problem is to collect data and store it for a short time.

I would like to draw attention here, we are talking about the short-term storage of this data, while Google, conditionally, or Facebook stores data forever, forever! They don't erase them, they stay forever. That is why they are building giant "data centers" in the US.

VZGLYAD: In the Netherlands, too, since the end of last year, there has been a public discussion of a bill that involves the collection of information about users' messages and calls with the help of local telecom operators and its subsequent storage. The authorities plan to monitor the correspondence and conversations of the Dutch and identify potential terrorists. Do you think they will eventually pass this law?

D.D.: Of course it will be accepted. The fact is that the EU countries have become hostages to the flow of migrants, the flow of refugees. Very many of those who present themselves as refugees are active participants in the gang underground and terrorist cells.

This, in turn, significantly increases terrorist threats. It is simply unrealistic to cope with such a wave of information using traditional methods of operational-search activity. Therefore, this is a question of our near enough future, when European and not only European countries, for the most part, will adopt such laws. I am sure that these laws will be tougher than in Russia.

VZGLYAD: That is, after some time the whole world will move to a more thorough control of the Internet space - in order to protect against terror and crime in general?

D.D.: Yes, and the next issues that will arise before the states, including within the framework of bilateral and multilateral relations, are precisely the regulation of interaction in the field of data transfer. Information about our citizens is inviolable and protected by the state. Therefore, states will have to regulate at the level of some international convention the rules for the use of these data, their cross-border transfer.

If our state guarantees the right to data privacy, it will also have to guarantee it when processed by other participants, including those from abroad. International legislation in this area - European, Russian, American - will gradually be harmonized.

I argued for a long time, but is it necessary ... to bring here a dictionary on WEB2.0 technologies. And I decided that I would make a link to the magazine and still give an abbreviated version. Maybe a dictionary will help someone ....
Social media dictionary

Avatar (avatar, avatar, ava) - the user's photo and the main picture of the group. Character. The embodiment of the user in the virtual world. Reflects the character traits of a user or group, gives the first impression of the user, group.

Authorization - identification, user authentication. The process by which a site can recognize a registered user. The procedure for authenticating the combination of an identification name and password entered by a user into an interactive form. Access to the territory of the site, through a name (login) and password, similar to presenting a passport or pass. Granting access rights and checking the user's authority to perform any actions on the site.

Group administrator in a social network (admin) - the founder of the group, who is responsible to the site administration for its content. Can change the description of the group and its main picture. Can delete a group. Deleting an admin account will also delete all groups created by him. Can appoint and dismiss group moderators. Has all the rights and functions of moderators.

Site administration - persons authorized by the site owner to manage the site and other actions related to its use. The site administration acts on behalf of the site owner, except for separately agreed options.

Account (from English account - account, personal account, profile, profile, page, account) - a registration record containing information that the user reports about himself on the social network. Contains information required when connecting to the system - user name (login) and password, user name and surname. May contain additional personal data about the user - photo, patronymic, pseudonym, gender, social affiliation, etc. After deleting the account, all visited users, that is, to whom they “visited”, the mention of the fact of entry ceases to be displayed.

Attack of the Thousanders - the attackers quickly create 1000 topics in a group on Odnoklassniki, which displace the main topics of the forum, after which the latter are automatically deleted.

Website audience is a general term for website visitors. The size of the audience is a characteristic of the success of an Internet project.

Ban (from English ban - to prohibit) is a slang expression. 1) a method of punishment by the site administration for incorrect user behavior or the use of spamming techniques, which consists in deleting the account from the database. Recovery is not guaranteed, usually requires personal correspondence with the administration and in any case takes long time. 2) removal of a member from the group for incorrect behavior by blacklisting him. A member of the group, listed in the emergency, has no opportunity to get into the group. After being removed from an emergency, a member in the group is not automatically restored.

Bot (English bot short for robot) is a cartoon created by a special program to perform a specific action on a social network, usually sending spam. The bot does not respond to questions and messages from other users. Contacting a bot can provoke a visit to the user a large number his "brothers".

Browser - (browser from English browse - flipping) a program for navigating and browsing sites that allows you to view pages placed on the Internet and download the necessary files. Popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome Opera. Allows you to view documents in certain formats (html, xml, etc.).

Web 2.0 / Web 2.0, Second Generation Web - An Internet community controlled more by interactive tools than by means of publishing. A variety of sites on which online content (internal content of the site) created by the users themselves is combined and divided among the participants and controlled by the community members themselves.

Virtual (from the English virtual - imaginary, creating the appearance, "fake", "cartoon", "clone", sockpappet) is a neologism meaning: 1) "a fictitious person", a site user impersonating another person. An account that cannot be associated with a real person. 2) one of the ways to ensure privacy, when only general records remain in the activity feed, without indicating the old name and surname.

A computer virus is a type of malicious program, written by intruders, capable of reproduction, which spreads from computer to computer via the Internet for destructive purposes. It can get into the user's computer along with downloaded information or e-mails and instant messages and letters in a personal message, cause serious damage, destroy or damage data stored on the computer. It can steal the user's personal information (including the password) and send it to the attacker. Viruses can spread under the guise of funny pictures, greeting cards, sound and video files may be downloaded from the Internet along with non-licensed software or other files and programs. To protect against viruses, there are special programs- antiviruses. Both viruses and antiviruses are constantly updated and improved.

Site owner - domain administrator, owner of the rights to use the site, to its design, to the programs included in its composition, information materials, graphic images, which are elements user interface, and other objects included in the site. Provides services for the transfer, storage and access via the Internet to the information provided by users.

Harmful cartoon - used for insults in the forum, grading "1" to photos and committing other negative acts.

Main page - see Home page.

Guests are visitors to the user's page on Odnoklassniki. The user, by clicking on the "Guests" button, can see pages with names and photos of everyone who came to look at his profile, and the date of the visit (except for the pages of Invisibles).

A group is a community of people with similar interests who communicate with each other within a social network. It consists primarily of members and the forum. The quality and rank of a group is primarily judged by the number of members. It can be formed around a certain field of activity, geographic reference or interests (sports, music, professions, etc.).

Jeep / JPG, JPEG,.jpg (Joint Photographic Expert Group) is a popular graphic format on the Internet. To store an image, the JEPG format uses a high lossy compression algorithm, which makes it possible to achieve huge levels of compression. It is mainly used to store high quality photographs. The format does not allow animation and transparency. Usually jpeg format used to store high quality photos. Allows you to use up to 16 million colors.

Home page / Home page, homepage - a resource that is a story about a person, his family, lifestyle, hobbies and hobbies. The user's personal page, usually small in size. The main first page of the site, which is loaded on the computer after entering the main address of the site, carrying the main presentation and navigation load.

Ban - see Ban.

Closed group - a social network group whose data (forum, list of members and other internal information) can only be viewed by its members. To join a closed group, a potential member submits a request to join the group, which is sent to the group moderators for consideration.

Ignore (from English ignore - ignore) "block", "blacklist" - refusal to accept messages in a "PM". Prohibition of communication to the forum visitor. Usually applied to rude or annoying users and interlocutors, those with whom users no longer wish to make contact.

IMHO - an expression borrowed from English: in my humble opinion - in my humble opinion. In Russian: “I think”, “I believe”, “I think”.

Interface - presentation on the monitor screen of information that is minimally necessary for the user to perform the next step. Placement and presentation of controls on the screen, taking into account their semantic meaning and logical relationship. A set of conditions, means and methods that ensure user interaction with the site, program and computer. Tools for user orientation and operation in the information space. Use of familiar user-friendly images, intuitive and consistent with each other to control the software. Example: car interface - steering wheel and pedals.

Captcha / CAPTCHA (from the English Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart - a fully automated public Turing test to distinguish between computers and people) is a computer test that is used to determine who the user of the system is: a person or a machine program. Captcha offers the user a task that is easy to solve for a person and difficult for a computer. Basically, these are character recognition tasks. Captcha helps prevent bots from using websites, in particular to prevent automatic shipments messages, registration, file downloads, mass mailings, etc. Captcha protects against spam, flooding and account hijacking. Most often, the captcha looks like a veiled random number, a set of letters or a word, you need to read the person to the user, and enter the read result in the proposed window.

Click: 1) Mouse click. 2) Transition of the site visitor via a text link or banner.

Constructive cartoon / pseudo-real - created for work and communication in groups and forums. A forced measure for administrators and moderators of groups who have to communicate with a large number of people. Thus, the moderator saves his personal page from being "banned" and does not popularize personal data.

Content (from English content - content, content) - texts, photographs and images and other information content of the site. The essential parameters of the content are its volume, relevance and relevance.

Cookies / cookies - (from the English cookie - cookies) - a small piece of data created by the server. It is stored on the user's computer as a file that the browser sends to the server each time a page is opened. It is necessary for saving user data, his personal preferences and settings, his identification, and tracking the state of the access session, as well as maintaining statistics about users.

Activity feed - display all public user activities (messages in forums, adding friends, uploading photos, new messages and photo albums in a group) that friends and members of the same group can see.

Personal messages, personal - electronic messages transmitted by one user to another and not available to third parties, the sending and receiving of which is carried out using the user's personal page.

Moderator: 1) a group member who has the right to punish and encourage other group members, responsible for order in the entire forum or part of it. Punishment, as a rule, is of two types: a warning and a ban on using the group. See Functions of moderators in a social network. 2) a user of the site Odnoklassniki checking new Main photos of other users, see Checking photos. 3) staff member of the administration, employee of the service technical support who monitors the order and normal operation of the site, has the right to warn and punish users in accordance with the rules of the social network.

A cartoon is a person who uses unreal (fictitious) data to hide his real identity. Cartoons are divided into constructive and harmful (negative).

On photos of friends - a function in Odnoklassniki for posting photos of friends in which users have tagged them.

Invisible - payable service, which allows the user of Odnoklassniki to visit any members of the social network, while remaining unidentified, without displaying the visitor's data in the Guests section. Also, other users cannot, as in the usual case, determine whether given user Currently online—disable the message that the user is online.

Invalid expressions - links to any other sites are prohibited in messages, status and photo captions. The built-in parser checks the text and, recognizing phrases similar to the address of a site, reports "invalid expressions".

About me - a section of the user's personal page of Odnoklassniki, in which the User can provide information: about life, about studies, about service, about work and other things. This section may contain links to other sites.

Light version of the site (for mobile devices) - see WAP-version of the site.

Odnoklassniki.ru is a social network that allows you to find and restore communication with former classmates, classmates, graduates, school and student friends, friends and acquaintances. Service for finding new friends and acquaintances with many profiles of people who can share common interests, hobbies and hobbies. It allows virtual communication, viewing photos and setting up real meetings.

On-line (from English on line - on the line) - currently in the state of connecting to the Internet. Functioning only when connected to the Internet. Existing and happening on the Internet in real time. The adjective is online.

Paid services - services on Odnoklassniki, in order to be able to use them, you need to send a paid SMS message. 1) a place for additional photos, 2) "Invisible" service, 3) removal of low ratings of photos, 4) the ability to use a wide range of emoticons, including moving ones, 5) cleaning the page from intruders, removing them from the list of views, 6 ) the ability to close the page from viewing by all users except friends, 7) initial registration: to send messages on Odnoklassniki, upload and rate photos, leave comments in forums and visit pages of other users.

Site user - a person who accesses the site and accesses any of the pages included in its composition via the Internet. Has access to all services of the site, with the exception of those that are provided on a paid basis.

Site visit (visit, site session, session on the site) is a series of requests to the server made by one user in a given period of time, during which the user accesses the pages of the site, and each of his requests is reflected in the server logs. The session is considered completed if during a certain period of time the user has not received a single new request to the server.

A post is a single message in a forum, in a topic. It can be removed or corrected by the administrator and moderator at their discretion without prior warning (usually in cases of violations of the rules). It is also the process of writing a message.

Photo Verification is a function for moderators to verify new Main Photos that users have just posted on their pages. Any user of the site can become a photo moderator, who is awarded bonus points for this work. The moderator chooses the frequency of checking from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, and new photos are periodically shown to him. By voting to block some of them, he gives a reason. The same photo is shown to several other moderators at the same time. Blocking occurs by decision of the majority of moderators. To stop their moderation, the user needs to go to the check frequency selection menu, and select the frequency "never".

Pseudoreal - see Constructive cartoon.

Real is a law-abiding social network user with real data and photos. The reality of the user is confirmed by the passport, in case of deletion of the account. Due to their unreality, clones and cartoons are not subject to official restoration in case of deletion.

Site regulations (social network regulations) - governs the relationship between the owner of the site represented by the site administration and its users arising in connection with the use of the site. The provisions of the regulation are established, changed and canceled by the site owner unilaterally.

Resource / resource - site, Internet project, network node. Part of the system that can be allocated to a user and/or process.

Site (from the English site) - literally "network node". A set of web pages hosted on the Internet, united by a single theme, design and a single domain address space.

Server / server - a large computer, the resources of which are used by many users.

The Internet is a set of international automated systems information, communications and services superimposed on the technological environment of telecommunication networks.

Emoticon (from the English word smile - smile, smile) - an intuitive combination of symbols that indicate a person's emotion while writing some text. There are text and graphics.

SMS activation - sending an SMS message with mobile phone user to a specific number with the introduction of certain symbols (numbers) into the text of the message, as a result of which the user account is authorized in the social network. SMS activation on Odnoklassniki is paid, that is, the cost of a sent message is higher than in the usual case.

Messages are pieces of information transmitted from one user of a social network to another.

Communities - lists of classmates, fellow students, co-workers, colleagues and fellow vacationers on the Odnoklassniki website. Groups of people with similar interests. Have a list of members and a forum. Communities are formed around educational institutions and certain areas of user activity. To join the community, you need to go to "Interests", then "Communities", Add: school | college | institute | army | company | resting-place. Select a region, click Search: Fill out the form and Save.

Social network - an interactive multi-user website, the content of which is filled by the network members themselves, with the ability to specify any information about an individual person / person (date of birth, school, university, favorite activities, etc.), according to which the user account can find other network members. One of the common features of social networks is the system of "friends" and "groups". It is a community of Internet users with access to the web based on interests and geographic location, an online medium used to facilitate social interactions such as the exchange of content, opinions, experiences and current media. Facilitates creation personal profile and virtual relationships. This social structure, consisting of groups of nodes, which are social groups, personalities, individuals. Social networks are used to search not only for people with similar interests, but also for the objects of these interests themselves (sports, music, professions, etc.). Such networks typically use folk classification, the practice of collaboratively categorizing information.

Spam bot - computer program, the purpose of which is the automated sending of spam. Looks for insecure data entry forms on sites and fills them with its content.

Status (from Latin - position, state) - the state in which the user is or was. To set the status in Odnoklassniki, a form limited to 100 characters is presented, allowing the user to enter any information that reflects his current state.

Topic - the topic of the forum. Content-structured posts.

A Trojan is a program that is inside another, harmless program that provides access to someone else's computer to perform various manipulations on it and send confidential information to attackers.

Account - see Account.

Phishing (English phishing, from password - password and fishing - fishing, fishing) - password theft. A type of Internet fraud, the purpose of which is to gain access to confidential user data - logins and passwords. A common phishing technique is to create exact copy an existing web page, such as the Main site of Odnoklassniki, in order to force the user to enter their personal data and password. The letter often contains a direct link to a site that is outwardly indistinguishable from the real one. Once on such a site, the user can provide information to attackers that allows them to gain access to their account.

Flood (from the English word flood - flood, deluge) - a message consisting only of a set of characters and (or) emoticons. Any message that is repeated more than once.

Forum: 1) Communication tool in groups and communities of the social network. A platform that combines messages and discussion threads. Forum member's replies to the previous post, linked to the original post. 2) Section on the personal page of the Odnoklassniki user, with publications open records personal and general nature of the user himself and other participants in the social network, temporal significance, sorted in reverse chronological order, that is last record, is on top. This section may contain links to other sites.

Functions of moderators in a social network. A group moderator in a social network is a group member who takes an active part in the life of the group and has the ability to edit and delete any topics and individual messages in Group. Ensures that forum participants conduct discussions within the bounds of decency, without inflicting mutual insults and insults on each other and other undesirable actions. Monitors compliance by the participants with the rules. Can close topics or change their name in the direction of communication. Can issue warnings to the participant. A moderator is a person who keeps order in the group and maintains an atmosphere conducive to pleasant communication.

A worm is a program that infiltrates computer systems over the Internet and performs malicious functions or activities. It can first "crawl" to one computer, then "crawl" to other computers on the same network. It can install other viruses and malware on the computer and give an attacker full access to the affected system.

Blacklist - a list of users who are blocked for incorrect behavior and for other reasons. ES is available on the personal pages of users and in groups. Users listed in the emergency cannot send messages and view information.

CAPS-Lock (CAPS-Lock, capitals lock, fixing capital letters) - a key on the keyboard located on its left edge, under the Tab key and above the Shift key. Designed to automatically change the case of letters from lowercase to uppercase (“makes letters large, capital, and vice versa”).

WAP version of the site is a light version of the site that provides access to the social network of mobile devices, phones, smartphones, communicators and PDAs. Version of the site in an ascetic style based on simplified HTML pages, with limited functionality, interface and a minimum amount of graphics and animation. Allows you to receive and send messages, view and rate photos. Minus - increase in the bill for GPRS-services. Plus - significant savings in Internet traffic. The pages are made as light as possible, which ensures their fast loading.

XSS vulnerability (CSS) is a type of social network vulnerability that occurs when programs from users get into the pages generated by its server. It is stored on the server and fires in the victim's browser when any page of the infected site is opened. At the time of the attack on the page, the cookie may contain the administrator's session identifier.

Ministry of Internal Affairs released documents on surveillance of social media users Russian police headquarters are purchasing software that allows them to spy on social media users, including reading private messages, collecting geolocation data and analyzing the connection between different users.

Znak.com found out that "gray" access to social media data can be used for this. The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that they are not going to read users' correspondence without a court decision. The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region announced the purchase of a software and analytical module for information system"Zeus", which is already used by the Sverdlovsk police.

In the terms of reference, the police without cuts painted all the functionality of the new software, which is designed to spy on users of social networks. Thanks to the new module, the police will be able to put any user on constant automatic monitoring: keep track of who he adds as friends, what he writes posts about, whether he meets in his publications search words; what groups the user joins, what photos and videos he adds and deletes, with whom and how often he communicates.

One of the points of the terms of reference directly states that the Zeus system should provide a text search through the archive of the user's personal messages.

At the request of analysts, the software module will even draw a graph of the user's social environment and establish a possible connection between users by analyzing friends, relatives, indirect friends, places of residence, common groups and reposts. Analysts of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be able to search for photos posted on social networks by geotags, the time the image was uploaded to the network, by keywords that describe the photo. The module will also display on the map the place where this or that picture was taken.

Some of the functions described in the terms of reference can theoretically be provided using open data from social network users. At the same time, a significant part of the terms of reference can only be completed if the module gains access to classified information, including users' personal correspondence. Theoretically, this is possible if social networks themselves give access to such data. For social networks, especially foreign ones, this would be a serious reputational risk.

Zeus already operates in seven regions

During a survey of experts, Znak.com was able to contact individuals who have an idea about the work of the spying program. According to them, in seven regions of the Russian Federation, the specified software module has already been successfully tested and started working. In particular, "Zeus" is used in Novosibirsk, Samara and Tyumen region, KhMAO, Samara, Altai and Lipetsk region. In the latter region, during testing of the system, the police, for example, reported identifying “latent” members of informal extremist associations who “allegedly carried out protest actions.”

In addition, the Lipetsk police managed to identify users who place ads for highly paid jobs for girls (presumably pimps). This is stated in the review of the tests of the Zeus system carried out in July 2016 by the Lipetsk police. We failed to find information on public procurement of the system for the listed regions. It is possible that closed public procurement procedures were carried out (FZ No. 44 allows for such a possibility). So far, the only region in which the auction documentation has been published is the Sverdlovsk region.

Police: Law-abiding citizens have nothing to worry about

Valery Gorelykh, spokesman for the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region, confirmed that the department is purchasing software for monitoring social networks, and noted that police officers need it "to perform the tasks assigned to them by law, including in the field of countering terrorism and extremism."

“Law-abiding citizens have no reason to worry about correspondence on social networks, unless, of course, it contains something criminal. It is necessary to be afraid of those who do not like a calm and peaceful life in our state, - said Gorelykh. - Work on such equipment will be carried out only by decision of the courts, so that there is no violation of the legal rights of citizens. Work in this direction is necessary both for the security of the state as a whole, and for the inhabitants of the Sverdlovsk region.”

"VKontakte": "We act within the law"

Press Secretary of VKontakte Yevgeny Krasnikov, having familiarized himself with terms of reference purchase of an analytical module, noted that, most likely, we are talking about monitoring the public activity of social network users: their own posts on personal pages, posts of friends on the same walls, reposts and publications in social network communities. “VKontakte is present flexible system privacy settings for user pages, which allows, in particular, to close public access to your posts on the wall and exclude personal page from the issuance of search sites, - said the representative of the social network. The safety of the personal data of our users is a priority for the company.

“VKontakte” strictly adheres to the current legislation and fully respects the constitutional rights of citizens,” the press secretary of the social network said.

Internet Ombudsman: "Normal Purchase"

Facial recognition technologies have evolved very powerfully in recent years. Monitoring and automatic recognition can stumble upon photos you have taken at the resort. And in the background, the robot recognizes the criminal who fled the scene of the crime. Based on this assumption, a check will be carried out and a criminal who may be a threat to your life and your health will be detained.” Marinichev did not comment on the point about the ability of Zeus to read users' private messages.

Surveillance began before the "Yarovaya law"

It is worth noting that in November 2015, the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sverdlovsk Region already tried to buy a similar module for spying on social network users. Then the department expected to purchase software for 1 million 420 thousand rubles. However, the auction did not take place, as no applications were submitted for it. At the same time, it is impossible to open the file with the protocol for considering applications for participation in the auction, and the only member of the tender commission, according to the public procurement website, was a man named Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. Who, how and why listens to your conversations and reads the correspondence. Research Znak.com

According to him, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had the opportunity to study the personal data of users in Russian social networks long before the adoption of the sensational "Yarovaya Law". “The Yarovaya law only legalized the already existing practice, including allowing the collected data to be used as evidence in court,” the source says.

According to him, the use of "Zeus" cannot be considered legal operational-investigative activity, it is rather a primary collection of information, on the basis of which it will already be possible to determine targets for a legal search operation, including using the norms of the Yarovaya Law. If you believe the source, you can say that the illegal collection of information by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is implied.

At the same time, the Znak.com source believes that Zeus will be used for the benefit of society: to search for pedophiles, recruiters of extremist organizations, or, for example, to prevent propaganda of child suicides.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs published documents on surveillance of users of social networks.

Evgeny Biyatov/RIA Novosti

Russia's police headquarters are purchasing software that allows them to spy on social media users, including reading private messages, collecting geolocation data and analyzing connections between different users. Znak.com found out that "gray" access to social media data can be used for this. The Ministry of Internal Affairs says that they are not going to read users' correspondence without a court decision.

The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region announced the purchase of a software and analytical module for the Zeus information system, which is already used by the Sverdlovsk police. The competition will take place on August 8, the initial price of an annual license is 1 million 850 thousand rubles.

In the terms of reference, the police without cuts painted all the functionality of the new software, which is designed to spy on users of social networks. Thanks to the new module, the police will be able to put any user on constant automatic monitoring: keep track of who he adds as friends, what he writes posts about, whether there are search words in his publications; what groups the user joins, what photos and videos he adds and deletes, with whom and how often he communicates.

One of the points of the terms of reference directly states that the Zeus system should provide a text search through the archive of the user's personal messages.

Analysts of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be able to search for photos posted on social networks by geotags, the time the image was uploaded to the network, and the keywords that described the photo. The module will also display on the map the place where this or that picture was taken.

Zeus already operates in seven regions

During a survey of experts, Znak.com was able to contact individuals who have an idea about the work of the spying program. According to them, in seven regions of the Russian Federation, the specified software module has already been successfully tested and started working. In particular, Zeus is used in the Novosibirsk, Samara and Tyumen regions, KhMAO, Samara, Altai and the Lipetsk region. In the latter region, during testing of the system, the police, for example, reported identifying “latent” members of informal extremist associations who “allegedly carried out protest actions.” In addition, the Lipetsk police managed to identify users who place ads for highly paid jobs for girls (presumably pimps). This is stated in the review of the tests of the Zeus system carried out in July 2016 by the Lipetsk police.

We failed to find information on public procurement of the system for the listed regions. It is possible that closed public procurement procedures were carried out (FZ No. 44 allows for such a possibility). So far, the only region in which the auction documentation has been published is the Sverdlovsk region.

Police: Law-abiding citizens have nothing to worry about

“Law-abiding citizens have no reason to worry about correspondence on social networks, unless, of course, it contains something criminal. Those who do not like a calm and peaceful life in our state need to be afraid,” said Gorelykh. - Work on such equipment will be carried out only by decision of the courts, so that there is no violation of the legal rights of citizens. Work in this direction is necessary both for the security of the state as a whole, and for the inhabitants of the Sverdlovsk region.”

"VKontakte": "We act within the law"

Evgeny Krasnikov, a spokesman for VKontakte, having familiarized himself with the terms of reference for the purchase of an analytical module, noted that, most likely, we are talking about monitoring the public activity of social network users: their own posts on personal pages, posts of friends on the same walls, reposts and publications in social networks.

“VKontakte has a flexible system of privacy settings for user pages, which allows, in particular, to block public access to your posts on the wall and exclude a personal page from the search results of search sites,” a representative of the social network noted. The safety of the personal data of our users is a priority for the company. VKontakte strictly adheres to the current legislation and fully respects the constitutional rights of citizens, ”said a spokesman for the social network.

Internet Ombudsman: "Normal Purchase"

Dmitry Marinichev, an adviser to the Russian president and Internet ombudsman, told Znak.com that the purchase of the Sverdlovsk Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was “quite normal.” “It's like buying a car to patrol the area. Do not forget that monitoring will be carried out in "public" places. Everything that people write, photograph, and so on, they make public,” the Internet Ombudsman noted. - Look at it this way. Facial recognition technologies have evolved very powerfully in recent years. Monitoring and automatic recognition can stumble upon photos you have taken at the resort. And in the background, the robot recognizes the criminal who fled the scene of the crime. Based on this assumption, a check will be carried out and a criminal who may be a threat to your life and your health will be detained.” Marinichev did not comment on the point about the ability of Zeus to read users' private messages.

Surveillance began before the "Yarovaya law"

A credible source of Znak.com, who is aware of the principles of Zeus and is associated with its developers, said that the work uses access to a closed interface of Russian social networks, “which social networks shared with the security forces quite a long time ago.” According to him, the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs had the opportunity to study the personal data of users in Russian social networks long before the adoption of the sensational "Yarovaya Law". “The Yarovaya law only legalized the already existing practice, including allowing the use of the collected data as evidence in court,” the source says. According to him, the use of "Zeus" cannot be considered legal operational-investigative activity, it is rather a primary collection of information, on the basis of which it will already be possible to determine targets for a legal search operation, including using the norms of the Yarovaya Law. If you believe the source, you can say that the illegal collection of information by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is implied.

Dmitry Kolezev Lyolya Mingaleva