I am an I.T. professional, and this is something that has come up in discussions many times. Sadly, there are groups, both government sponsored, and organization sponsored, not to mention the many mafias and other crime syndicates that are involved that are quite literally obsessed with viruses, trojans, spyware, malware, and any other number of undesirable software to harm you and your computer.
MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and many other similar sites are categorized as "social networking" websites. This group of websites has been targeted as an avenue to commit computer crimes. Malicious users can gain control of your computer, even use it to attack other computers and systems, steal private data, such as e-mail, photos, financial records, user habits, such as what you search for, what websites you visit, usernames and passwords - basically anything that has the potential to be used for monetary or other gain.
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the dangers surrounding social networking sites. There is an extreme risk of infection, simply by visiting the website, and not clicking anything, or even logging in. Simply by connecting to the website, you are inadvertently putting your computer at risk.
As mentioned earlier, malicious advertisers have the ability to place code inside of images, profiles, even blank pages with nothing on them, that is capable of gaining unauthorized access to your computer, or even network.
Another scary situation that has been becoming more common, although, is not a significant risk, at least not yet, is that your photos can become stolen, and used in advertisements and identity theft. With this, malicious persons have then also “mined” the information on your profile, your friends, and then gather enough information to open bank accounts in your name, purchasing vehicles, even real estate.
I personally do have an account with Facebook – however, I am not at all active on Facebook. I would delete my account, and remove it completely, however, once on the internet, I no longer have any way to permanently remove all records. Services such as the Wayback Machine
http://www.waybackmachine.org/web/ create permanent records that can not be altered, deleted, or removed. Sites such as Facebook also keep permanent backups of data on their servers, which also potentially can retrieved by anyone, anywhere, in the world.
Another issue is future employers. Frequently, employers will search online new employees, and even current ones. Things you say, post, do, or display can be used against you when trying to obtain a job, or, lead to your termination.
My opinion of social networking sites really comes down to this – they were a great idea, however they just weren’t designed for today’s security needs in mind – you really have to be conscious of everything online – the internet is a very, very, very dangerous place.
A tip from the F.B.I. is to maintain a computer for any and all financial software, transactions, and online banking completely separate from any actives that are not financially related. This means that you have a computer for checking email, browsing the internet, watching videos, listening to music, quite literally anything other than financial activities.
For those who have been infected with a virus, I would be happy to provide assistance if requested.