Here’s a free tip. If you’re a wanted fugitive, try to resist the urge to update Facebook and be careful who you choose as a Facebook friend.
Maxi Sopo has learned the hard way that what you put online can have effects other than what you may intend. The bank fraud suspect boasted on Facebook that he was living the high life in Mexico. He’s now in a Mexico City Jail waiting extradition to the United States.
“He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Scoville, who helped find Sopo. “He was definitely not living the way we wanted him to be living, given the charges he was facing.” – CBS News
As well as his boasting, Sopo added a former Justice Department official to his list of friends. Probably not his smartest moment.
You’re unlikely to be a US fugitive but Sopo’s story got me thinking about the kinds of things that end up on blogs and social networking sites like Facebook. In this case it was ‘the law’ reading stuff that was never intended for them. I’m wondering if you ever consider that no matter what security and anonymity you think you have online, what you write or upload could very well be read by people that you’d least expect.
Much has been said about potential employers checking people out on Facebook but there are a lot of other people who could be seeing what you’re posting.
Think about the person you’d least want to know your private details. Now imagine that they have full access to everything you put online. Scary thought but it’s pretty close to the truth.
I’ve read blog posts by people complaining about someone else and I wonder if they have ever considered that the person they’re writing about could very well read their posts. I’ve seen several people change their blogs or simply drop out of blogging because someone they didn’t want to share personal stuff with has started reading and commenting.
I’ve seen some quite revealing photos on Facebook pages and wondered why people have no respect for their own decency and privacy.
If you wouldn’t like what you’re uploading to be splashed across television screens to be seen by thousands of people, don’t put it online where it can be seen by potentially millions.
I’ve been blogging for almost six years and I use Facebook quite a lot and I’m constantly asking myself whether I’m OK with the entire world reading what I have to say. I may not always get the balance right but I’m still aware that it’s not only friends that will read what I write.
Have you had your privacy compromised online? Do you consider who might read what you post? Does it concern you that once something is posted online it’s there forever, even if you delete it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments in the comments section of this post.
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What did you mean by <i Does it concern you that once something is posted online it’s there forever, even if you delete it?
Stuff online is constantly being cached and archived.
If I delete a post from my blog it may have already gone to my RSS feed and then transferred to other blogging services over which I have no control. Once it’s out there, it’s out there for good.
Now that you mention it, that is scary to think.
BTW, all the best for the bike ride coming up, I wish I could join in, it sounds like great fun, in the mean time we plan a cycle either to or from Freo on Sunday morning.
Wishing you all strong legs, gentle breezes and cool days!
And thank you for riding for such a good cause.
Best advice I’ve seen – from my company’s internal training – is to assume anything you email or post online will end up on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper – or one a year from now. If you’re OK with that happneing, fire away. If not, you probably should pick up the phone.
Come to think of it, once newspapers are gone, we might need to rethink that advice. Instead, imagine it’s on the front page of Facebook.
Oh, wait, hang on, that’s already happening…
Maybe I should stop advising now. This post will be around for a while.
The “out there forever” aspect is a concern.
Even if what we write today seems harmless right now, we can’t be sure that 5 or 10 years down the track it won’t be misused or misinterpreted in ways we can’t imagine, in situations we can’t foresee, by people we haven’t yet met.
I don’t want to be paranoid, but too much discretion is probably safer than too little when it comes to saying things that can never be fully retracted.