Krypton Radio Newswire
In the wake of Linden Lab’s nearly silent rollout of Facebook style profile pages two weeks ago for users of its online service Second Life, a new social network service seems to have come to the fore.
It’s actually been around for some time. Linkedprim.com is a Facebook-style social networking site for users of Second Life. Clearly deriving its name from the professional networking service LinkedIn.com, it has been in operation since July of 2009, so it appears to have been created about a year after the ill-fated “Avatars United” social networking site launched in March 2008 by Sweden-based “Enemy Unknown”, then bought by Linden Lab and closed in October 2010..
LinkedPrim.com seems to be a more simple concept than Avatars United was, focusing exclusively on users of the Second Life online service – but it has some of the same privacy issues that Avatars United had. There is a validation process – if you go to a specific location within Second Life, you can identify to the system that you’re who you say you are. However, it is very easy to spoof anybody’s name, and the unwary can easily be fooled into friending somebody they don’t actually know and sharing personal information with them. There are several cases of identity fraud on the site already, and there are bound to be more if the service continues operation.
That said, it does appear that the operators of the site have at least given some thought to the notion of privacy, in that detailed real world contact information is not collected.
Story Update
However, there are more areas of concern: first, entire service appears to be owned and operated by somebody we could initially identify only as “Brota” – (Brota Kornfeld almost immediately posted to this article to let us know who he was and that they take this observations regarding safety of their site with some seriousness). Clicking on “Brota’s” profile in the service’s announcement posts only returns you to your own profile page, not “Brota’s”. There is no company name, nor even an “About” page identifying who the owners or operators of the service are. It isn’t until one searches a WHOIS database that one discovers that the site’s domain name is registered to:
Jorgensen, Janus contact@contrastimage.org
Contrast Media
Hjertingparken 294
Esbjerg V, 6710
Denmark
+45.2653341
We had originally thought this meant that the site runs on servers in Denmark, but that’s just the location of the person making the original registration of the domain. The fact is that the servers are in the United States, and they are, in fact, subject to United States privacy laws as Linden Lab’s Second Life is. Still, there is a section in one’s personal profile setup where you are encouraged to enter vital statistics about yourself, such as your real life age, the city, state and country you live in, your current relationship status, and your real life web site. Granted, it does not actually ask for your name, but this information is often enough for the dedicated internet troll to use it for stalking purposes. Krypton Radio advises caution in the use of this feature.
Social networking sites can be useful and engaging, but we hope our readers will use a little common sense with respect to social media services and give careful consideration to their safe and proper use.
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Links
- LinkedPrim.com
- The Wikipedia page on Avatars United
- Krypton Radio – Second Life Goes Live With Facebook Style Profiles Creating Privacy Concerns
I do not have an account on this service, that is not me. I call on the owners of the service to remove any account claiming to be me. In fact, any time I use a third service and relate it to Second Life I state clearly that Such use is to be verified with me in Second Life.
The Kalel Venkman on the service is actually me, I managed to get in before the griefers did and get my own name. I don’t actually plan to use the service, though.
Huh. Yeah. I’d rather not play the Internet chase-my-avatar-name game. I find it rather futile and exasperating. I just added this to my in-world profile:
‘Please keep in mind that any use of the name “Hewee Zetkin” outside of Second Life may very well not be by me. If you are curious about whether I submitted any content out-of-world, please send an in-world IM and I will be happy to clarify in a context where my identity is certain.’
Even here of course I may not be “me”, though I do consistently post with an e-mail address that I doubt any casual visitor would be able to associate with my Second Life name, so if that’s visible to admins on the back end they might have a LITTLE more assurance it is me.
Hi. I just read your post and you have some valid points which we, the operators of LinkedPrim, consisting of my wife and me for those interested, will take into careful consideration.
The validation process we have put in place makes sure you cannot verify your avatar without having access to that avatar account in Second Life. However I do agree that it’s a concern that you can use a non verified account to post with, and this is something I will take into account.
As for us being from Denmark, that is true, but all of the service is hosted within the United States, and therefore abides by US law.
We are very serious about the privacy of our users, and any information we collect will not be shared with any third party, in any way. We provide you with the possibility to share your relationship info ect, in case you want to this is in no way required. People looking for someone to date IRL could find this useful, as I can see other aspects where this could come in handy if you’re not just in SL to greif, cosplay ect, but actually want to create a network of people, and share your true identity.
Lastly, I’d like to thank you for pointing out some of our weaker spots, as this will help us make a stronger site in the future, which people will enjoy without fear of personality theft or anything like it.
So, off with the tinfoil hat and come over to LinkedPrim and say hi
Glad to be of a help there Brota, we at Krypton Radio wish your service the best of luck in your future. There are no tinfoil hats here, haha, just looking out for some of the less informed readers when it comes to internet safety. Cheers and thank you for the response and acknowledgement.
We’ve updated the article, Brota – thank you for taking an interest. Our readers are a little focused on social networking security, perhaps more so than other markets, so we believe they will be interested in more information about LinkedPrim.com if you’d like to tell us more about it.
Someone has registered an account in my name, and it was not me. I do not use the LinkedPrim.com service and do not plan to. I will be sending an email to them to have the account barred from use. I see this as a very serious security and privacy issue, to even allow someone to register a name without being able to verify it first is a privacy violation. You should be required to register via an in-world device, so it can verify that avatar, THEN the account can be created on the website.
This matter needs to be dealt with quickly, as SL based identity theft is a massive problem.
Word has it that Brota Kornfeld has been extremely helpful and responsive to requests from people who have had their identities spoofed on the LinkedPrim service; hats off to Brota for being such a good sport about it and being so cooperative with people asking for assistance with his service!