Wanted: Someone to Erase Internet History
If only it were that easy…
As a security person, it took me a LONG time to get on Facebook. Don’t have a MySpace, minimal LinkedIn, etc.
Why, because it is the Internet and the less people know about me, the better. (Kind of funny I decided to blog, but more on that later)
I have always told my kids that you shouldn’t tell anyone anything online that you wouldn’t tell a stranger who walked up to you on the street. Just because they are standing in front of you versus virtual, the risk is the pretty much the same. Again, here is the security person in me.
Facebook has been a complete puzzle to me. Loved the movie, Social Network, mostly because of the writer I am sure, and I understand what Zuckerberg and others were doing, but I am still dumbfounded by the popularity.
People post very real, very damaging information to Facebook on a regular basis. I have considered it somewhat of an inside secret, up ’til now.
Yesterday an article posted quoting a Florida lawyer, Carin Constantine who said that Facebook is used in 90 percent of her Divorce cases. Even if you limit your information to friends; they have 2 friends, and they have 2 friends, and someone doesn’t have their privacy settings right and there you are, exposed.
I will tell you as a technology manager, I have always Googled perspective employees to see what type temperaments they have. If I catch wind of massive profanities or other rantings from social sites, I have to seriously wonder if they will work well with others or bring drama.
Sometimes you find their contributions to forums or list groups and can tell they really do have the knowledge you are seeking.
Sometimes they have blogs and you get a better insight to their fantastic personality (yep, that is all about me). 🙂
I am not a Facebook hater, in fact, I will pepper this cautionary tale with a cool item I read from Facebook a few weeks ago.
Apparently a Doctor was reading the Facebook postings of a friend and after several noticed a pattern, he left a message for his friend telling him to call him. Sure enough, the guy had an appendicitis and the Dr. saved his life.
Were it only the case, that everyone wanted to use Internet data for good and not for evil.
It is in our nature to never know how things will hurt us until it is too late and then we just can’t believe it happened to us. Go figure.