Facebook's Latest Bomb

I think if you put more info on there than you are willing to risk anyone, regardless of who, seeing in the first place that you might be a tad nuts.

Yeah - I know, education is king..........but why are people tossing personal details online at facebook? It seems just weird to me that someone would put a phone number out to the public then freak out over it being shared. For cripes sakes - some people don't even list their addresses in phone books then they turn around and throw it on facebook. Does that make any sense whatsoever?

Sometimes people need to use their heads instead of relying on everyone else to do their thinking for them.

Everyone knows identity theft is rampant -- so why use a computer without educating yourself on what is going on? Sorry - I find that irresponsible. ESPECIALLY if you have kids that are using one, too. How much risk is a person willing to take with their kids before they figure out that they need to educate themselves and then teach them, too?

I have no idea who you think I am - but I'm not different from anyone else online. In fact when it comes to technology I'm still a freaking techno-moron. Ask my tech if you don't believe me. I had not one hint of a clue what I was doing when I turned my machine on in 2004. It only took one virus to know that I had to learn more about security online. I've got 6 security systems running on this machine now and know I'm still vulnerable. If I had kids they'd know every damned thing I have learned about it, too -- and one of those things is that you don't put your phone and address anywhere that people can see it unless you are willing to "share" it with the world, and I don't care WHAT program you are typing it into.

We can get upset and refuse to use programs when we don't like methods the program is using. Facebook announced over and over again that they were changing things and it's all in their TOS. Why weren't people paying attention? I went and downloaded a FF pluggin called "better privacy" to remove all those LSO's (super cookies) from my machine, too and that is not something that I waited for someone else to teach me about. It took actively doing the reading and research to find out about them - research that was triggered when I read FB TOS.

That's why I call it "nuts".

If someone as clueless about technology as I am can protect themselves - anybody can.

Sal,

Yeah I agree,which is part of my point. People put all their info on sites like this largely because they don't know any better. They think it's fun, or they see others do it so they think it's safe.

It's already bad enough that your personal info is accessible on the internet without even having a FB account - when you purchase on line, use a credit card at the store,on line banking... places like that get hacked daily, yet people put their personal info on sites like FB every day.

Even better is when they make posts like "Going on a vacation all next week - yeah!"

I have some personal info on my FB account - but I also put a lot of "incorrect" info in, just in case.

Hello mate ,
Thanks for this information.

You should NEVER give them your ccorrect birthdate. You should NEVER givee them a valid personal history. NEVER give more than 1 credit card, and THAT only if demanded. It is best to NOT give a phone number.

We USED to only have 4 problems to watch for:

1. People that didn't know/care to use SSL.
2. People that didn't know/care to secure data stored on the system.
3. There were bad people with access.

TODAY, you can add computer "illnesses", trojans, etc.... AND companies that are selling, aggregating, or even GIVING out data!

Steve

I imagine it won't be long until we see news stories about peoples information being shared illegally.

Unfortunately, for the most part people will forget about it all in another week or two and Facebook will continue to push the envelope on this. They profit by sharing demographic information so people can target ads - it is in their interest to share as much as possible.

82ana - no need to apologize. You have to go a LOT further than that to ruffle my feathers, so speak your mind. God knows I do And for the record, get the Better Privacy pluggin for FF or your machine isn't safe from a LOT of sites. Those cookies are stored on your computer and used to "target" advertising. There are some legal suits going on over them because they are truly considered a breach of people's privacy because they follow you all over the place and watch what you're doing then place ads on some sites that they think are right up your alley. Want proof? Post in here about your favorite author and then go to facebook and look at your sidebar ads. It might take awhile to show up - on my computer it was a half an hour. Freaked me out for everything I was worth.....and that's why I went back and read the TOS again. Then I started researching cookies.

Michael - do you really believe that people with debit and credit cards are totally clueless about identity theft? How can anyone not suffocate to death with their heads buried that far in the sand? Even MSM reports on that stuff. How can anybody use a card and be so unconcerned about it? good grief. I actually keep my wallet in an electrostatic bag so nobody can use one of those hand scanners on it.

Mike - I thought I was the only one that lied on the forms, LOL. You should see some of the addresses I put down.

When someone takes moves to protect themselves and still get whacked I feel bad for them - but when someone is just plain clueless because they care to stay clueless - I have better things to do than worry about them.

You said "Everyone knows identity theft is rampant" and that simply isn't true. I know for a fact that some of them ARE indeed clueless about identity theft. Just as not everybody is putting their wallet in electro statci bags out of some fear of it being scanned.

But...I do believe most people fall somewhere in between the two extremes. It's all a matter of degrees, and we can't project our knowledge onto others for the sake of judging them.

That being said, people DO have to ultimately take responsibility for their own actions, and inactions.

All the best,
Michael

Michael - maybe you just hit on an important issue. How many other people think that putting your wallet in an electro-static bag is extreme? Anyone with a handheld scanning device standing next to you can scan your cards right through your wallet or purse and llift the ability to use your card. Don't ask me how it's done, I'm not a tech, but it can be done now. Maybe if people would stop seeing defenses against theft as "extreme" they might just quit getting victimized. I'd rather look like a Kook to someone than have my Card used without my knowledge or permission.