We’ve all done it. One of our friends posts a bulletin on MySpace with a fun survey, be it an adult-focused topic (Who did you last sleep with?) or a historical-focused topic (During your senior year in high school…), and you decide to join in on the action and re-post that survey in your own bulletin with your own answers. This is just harmless fun, right?
I’ve noticed from time to time that certain surveys floating around contain rather interesting questions, such as these:
[Three] What’s your middle name?
[Seven] What’s your mom’s maiden name?
Of course, these are surrounded by fairly innocent questions, such as:
[Five] Does your crush like you back?
[Seventeen] When was the last time you cried?
[Thirty] Have you ever kissed in the rain?
Due to all of the fluff in these sort of surveys, you really just never think of the danger that actually lurks out there with these rather loaded questions. Obviously mom’s maiden name is one of the most common verification questions used in the history of said questions, whether it be your pass-phrase verification for your online banking account or a password reminder for your eBay login.
Are your MySpace friends really the only people reading your survey answers? I’d personally like to side with caution when it comes to this sort of information, so think about it the next time you’re about to answer “What is your favorite baseball team?”
