FaceBook Is Not Private! Use Common Sense To Be Safe
So often I have conversations with people about Facebook and just what is appropriate to post. Just recently, I had a conversation with a young man who is in his mid 20′s and has landed a job at a bank. Naturally, working at a bank should be a no brainer when it comes to posting on FB. This young man is well informed and does not post anything about clients or about what is going on inside his department. However, he did post a comment to a friend who was just catching up. The young man commented that he had landed a nice job a a bank and gave the name of the bank. The result: he was called into his manager’s office for the talk. Thank goodness, he hadn’t said anything damaging but it was a great low level lesson to remind him that his online social conversations are being tracked.
This whole thing reminds me of when email was first becoming popular. (Yes, I’m that wise) We did some really dumb stuff like ranting unfavorably about our bosses, telling company secrets, and gossiping about our co-workers. How many people had to get fired before the reality of the openness of the internet really set in? I don’t know but today you don’t hear people asking what information is appropriate to email. It’s a no brainer. If you don’t want every one to know, don’t use email to share. It’s the same for Facebook and the other social media sites.
Oh, and don’t get me started about mobile phones! Your voice is being carried along in little data packages in the air and they are subject to being snatched out of the air. I also hate it when I’m watching a movie and someone goes to the center of the earth where clearly there are not cell towers. Yet, they call home. Oh no they didn’t!
But, back to Facebook, did you know that even after you delete a photo FB keeps it on their server for an unspecified amount of time? Scary isn’t it? So if someone has the URL for that photo they could possibly retrieve it from the servers. As a mother, I always used FB to spy on our children while they were away at college. Sometimes it was fun and sometimes I wanted to cry! As a marketer and social media strategist, I am still crying at times when I see people making big mistakes like telling everyone where they live or that they are going on vacation. Why not just hang out a sign that says your house is empty and available for robbery. That would be insane! It is just as insane to post that you are going away in a few days on FB.
The Huffington Post had a great slide show about this subject. Check it out. You might be surprised to find that you are doing some things that might be putting you at risk of being improperly exposed.
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Categories: Email, Facebook, Monitoring, Public Relations, Social Media Manners Tags: facebook, Human Resources, Privacy, Social Sharing, Social Sharing Safety
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