ABSTRACT
This chapter combines several independent fields of research: analytics, social technologies, civil engagement, collective intelligence, and cyber security to reveal the main threats of using social technologies during the process of engaging society in socially responsible activities. It emphasizes that attention must be paid to cyber security issues to develop a safe and reliable environment for people who wish to engage and wish to generate ideas for the greater welfare of society. The main challenge is to exploit the potential of new media while not compromising civil liberties, including the right to freedom of expression, to education, and to privacy. From the cyber security perspective, respondents do not rank the legal risks as critically important, but they are aware of cyber security issues and strongly support most offered ideas about safe and secure operations online. It shows that people in Lithuania still lack experience in online civic activities and cannot identify independently what problems they might face in virtual space.
