Tag Archives: Privacy

September 22, 2012

Viral Facebook Riot

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. A teenage girl in the Netherlands put up an invitation for her 16th birthday party. But a moment of carelessness, which teenagers tend to have a lot of, allowed the invitation to go out to loddy-dotty-everybody. The invite went viral. Police estimate that approximately 30,000 Facebook users got wind of the party.

Some say that the police and media made it worse by publicizing the SNAFU, and asking people not to come. Maybe.

It’s been said that 10% of people will take up 90% of your time, and true to form about 3000 people showed up and made quite a ruckus. Windows were broken, bottles were thrown, houligans prowled the streets. It’s an anecdotal cautionary tale about privacy online and snowballs. The funny thing here, is that this mob response was entirely unintentional.

Every day people all over the world plan and strategize ways to capture the power of social media. Some people even get paid to do it. But nothing seems to beat the catalyst of happenstance, which is what makes anything that goes viral eternally fascinating.

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March 25, 2012

Facing Facebook Part Duex

Facing Facebook Part Deux, Soap Box MomentI must say, I feel compelled to have a soap box moment.

In many ways we (as in those who engage in Social Media) live very public lives. We share are thoughts, locations, our pictures and our moods with those we call “friends,” meaning those we choose to share with. There are many a various level of social media privacy, from the bare it all everything about me is public and out there for the world to see, to the “I will only show you a very abstract picture of myself and share things I come across” to “you want me to put what on the internet?”

Bottom line is if it’s on line, it is fair game, unless you have an iron clad agreement with everyone you choose as a friend to totally 100% respect your privacy.  Yeah, good luck with that.

So with that in mind, employers may feel compelled to want to look at your Facebook to see how you are amongst friends. Yes it is an invasion of privacy, but dear reader, I’d like for you to consider that such things may be for our benefit.

WHAT? Yes I can hear that internal dialogue you are having right now as you read this where you begin to think I’ve lost my mind, but I implore you to keep reading and hear me out.

I’d like to propose the possibility that just maybe by putting it all out there, flaws, faux pas, all of our reality, that we might be able to forgo pretense and truly accept each other as people. Who among us, doesn’t have something to hide? How much better might we be with a policy of radical honesty? Would we be inspired to be more forgiving when we recognize another’s deeds as ones we have committed as well?  Or is that simply just what it means to get to know one another by discovering who another person is based on the information she chooses to share?

Ideally, if asked, I’d like to say I would share, with the notion that I have absolutely nothing to hide. “Here you go, this is me, these are my friends, if you really want to judge what kind of worker I will be based on that, I hope you know how to read between the lines for both the good and the bad.”

On a more practical level though, I may feel compelled to lock some stuff down.  Because when it comes down to it, I gotta eat.

 

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March 22, 2012

Facing Facebook with Employers

Should a potential employer be given free reign in your Facebook account?Facing Facebook with EmployersWeb 2.o aka Social Media has transformed how we live. We get our news via Twitter, LinkedIn is a
requirement for anyone trying to get a job, and Facebook is now a verb.  So much shared personal information coupled with the power of Google (or your search engine of choice) is creating new dilemmas for us all, but especially for job hunters.  In a still struggling economy, those seeking work are now asked face Facebook with Employers.

A recent Associate Press report explains how employers are asking candidates for access to their Facebook accounts. While the savvy Social Media user knows how to successfully keep prying eyes from that which is discriminating, the act of cyper-stalking may have gone too far.

How much of our personal lives and opinions should we be required to share with a potential employer?  Is it fair to be judged on our personal comments between friends?  Will this deter a new resurgence of Facebook use?

It seems that the evolution of social and profesional mores lag behind that of social media.  What else can one expect, when we so willingly provide such low hanging fruit?

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