28 Oct, 2007 in Social Networking by Fred

Is Facebook Violating Your Privacy?

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According to Valleywag, Facebook employees are in the habit of checking out people’s profiles and snooping around to see who certain people have been checking up on. Is this a violation of our privacy? Well, I am not sure, but I had to laugh at the Fake Steve Job’s response,

Some of us are still trying to get our heads around the idea that Valleywag is pretending to be outraged at the idea of someone snooping into the private affairs of other people. I mean, hello? Valleywag? The guys who follow Eric Schmidt around on dates? Man oh man.

That is too funny and so true.

Michael Krigsman from ZDNet is not surprised, but thinks that Facebook should prohibit their employees from doing this. In fact, he compared it to the IRS snooping around people’s tax returns.

Mac Beach thinks that this is a much bigger problem at Facebook. According to Mac Beach, Facebook consistently and pervasively disregards people’s privacy.

I think that Facebook should implement a policy prohibiting employees from doing this. But, I think that the more important thing to gain from this story is an awareness of the privacy concerns that the Internet raises.

We need to be careful about our online activities. Social Networking is great, but it is social. Just like you wouldn’t share certain things with your colleagues at work, you shouldn’t share certain things about yourself on social networking sites. These social networking sites leave a trail on the Internet about you. People can piece together a lot about you by doing a Google search, checking out what pages you Digg, and who your friends are on Facebook and Linkdin.

Tell me about your online privacy concerns.

6 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

  1. Keiron - Gravatar

    Keiron  |  October 28th, 2007 at 6:13 pm #

    Arrrrgghhh, they’re going to find out I have over 100 friends that I don’t chat to more than 5% of the time?!!?

  2. Fab - Gravatar

    Fab  |  October 29th, 2007 at 11:40 am #

    I agree social networking is great. But too many people are not really realizing the amount of information they reveal… scary!

  3. Blondie Writes - Gravatar

    Blondie Writes  |  October 30th, 2007 at 2:45 am #

    I don’t think that is their job description, and I bet it is a violation. The information is only there for the companies use. Maybe that is how passwords are sneaking out. What do you think?

  4. Mani Karthik - Gravatar

    Mani Karthik  |  October 30th, 2007 at 11:51 am #

    If they are doing it, it’s really bad.

    I doubt if they are that lame.

    Mani

  5. News Archive - Gravatar

    News Archive  |  October 30th, 2007 at 5:31 pm #

    “Just like you wouldn’t share certain things with your colleagues at work, you shouldn’t share certain things about yourself on social networking sites.” agree

  6. Online Coupon Codes - Gravatar

    Online Coupon Codes  |  November 1st, 2007 at 8:02 pm #

    It is scary how much personal information Facebook has on people. Check out this youTube video for more…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wogtTQs8Kzw

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