I have found your blog to be quite true and funny at the same time. Reality is hard sometimes, do we care about all the mass information overload? Sometimes. I am not on twitter or facebook for same reason, other than that I am too busy (read lazy) to be more connected. sic!

I have 40,000 plus on Twitter, but not much can be seen of who I am there.

Facebook however is another thing altogether. I have a modest presence there, but even so I removed a large amount of info about myself recently because I can't tell how it might be misused.

But I'm so damned visible anyway at my Traffic TV channel that maybe I shouldn't worry. :)

Jonathan

You highlight the big discrepancy in attitude between "us" and the general public. Bloggers, internet marketers, online entrepreneurs, etc. already are used to living within this very un-private space - 99% of us are well aware what we share about ourselves and the consequences of doing so. Typically, we're all quite transparent as it is, so it's not much of a worry.

The problem really is the mass public Joe Schmoes who use Facebook as only an extension of themselves - thinking that what they post online is somehow locked in a different corner, when it's really not. Does that mean the web has the change? I don't think so. It's *them* who needs to wake up and realize that the internet is just another *public* place similar to the mall, restaurants, library, etc. If you wouldn't say or post it there, then you shouldn't here.

I had to remove my year of birth from Facebook because it was so depressing. All those ads aimed at the most decrepit 10% of centenarians all over my page.

I may now remove my birthday, too, although it's too late to remove my self-imposed obligation to post Happy Birthday on the walls of the 73 people who just wrote Happy Birthday on my wall.

Those are my big Facebook privacy problems. I write plenty of controversial things, but nothing that hasn't been published as letters to the editor. Not as well written, though.

The point is that facebook and any other social media outlet should error on the side of too much privacy and allow user to loosen the controls as they see fit. And you're right most people don't care what you post but more often companies and agencies are starting to take a long hard look at social media profiles. It comes back to bite you in the ass.

It won't come back and bite you if you don't let it. Your choice is to either:
1. Never post any information you wouldn't want *everyone* to know.
2. Live with the knowledge that your transparent life will be up for scrutiny.

As of right now, there's nothing on my Facebook profile that I would give two craps if 6 billion people knew about... the thing is that 5,999,999,999 of them really don't care and are not looking for it.

So in short you're opinion is that you have no issue with FB forcing everyone on it to be transparent from the start and it is the end users responsibility to protect their own information? Couple of problems with that.

First people don't really understand how what they post on facebook can impact them 5,10, 20+ years down the line.

For example someone who is 19, 20 years old posts a few pictures of him and his buddies having a kegger. 5 years later he's going through a background investigation to become a police officer and guess what shows up. Nevermind the fact that he made the pictures private a few weeks after posting them. They got archived by some other site out there.

Second there's a reason I reject some requests from people on my private account. I do not want everyone knowing everything about me. There are things that personal friends are able to see that the rest of the world isn't. It makes sense that we'd start out with restricting everyone from seeing anything and then each person gets to decide who can see and what can be seen of their profile. Instead facebook seems to be taking the exact opposite approach. Start out unrestricted, and then jump through hoops to lock it down.

You don't want everyone knowing everything about you? Then don't post it on Facebook. Hell, don't even USE Facebook at all. No one's forcing you to do anything. It's a privately-owned system, not an entitlement. Your opinion makes it sound as if people have a *right* to use Facebook to conduct their personal business. They don't. You don't even own any of your data. If you want to share pictures of you & your buddies having a kegger, do it the most secure way: e-mail.

Hahaha, very good stuff. People should care that I like the Giants though... so maybe this privacy scare is actually a good thing? Hmmmmm......

Shut up Jordan! I want to upload naked pics of me and my mistresses on the world wide web.... yet I don't want YOU to find it. And on top of it, I want to see OTHER peoples naked pictures. And I want to yell at Facebook for not protecting my naked privacy. FUCK YOU FACEBOOK!!


/end sarcasm

Then that's what ChatRoulette is for!

I agree with you on this one. Every time facebooks a change that is stupid, I just roll my eyes and go on with life. There is no reason to get upset about privacy issues on Facebook. If there is something on your profile you do not want to share then remove it. User need to learn how to configurey the privacy settings, remove anything that that could get them into trouble, and they need to STOP sharing their dirty laundry.

As Jordan puts it, it doesn't really matter. No one cares about most people...

Exactly. Just don't put anything stupid or embarrassing on there that would get you kicked out of school, fired, arrested, or divorced and you'll be fine. But now I do kinda want to go looking for Aunt Betty's profile to check out those bridal shower pictures . . .

I try not to get worked up about Facebook's "privacy violations". For one, I've found, despite what I've read, I can, indeed, tailor my privacy settings so that the more egregious "violations" do not happen to me. And I agree with you: over 99.9% of people out there don't care about me. Most of my Facebook friends don't really care about what's happening in my life. Why should anyone else? Still, I have found one jarring example of a "privacy violation" that people should know about. I think I understand how it works, so it goes like this:

If your status updates are set to "Friends of Friends," and someone sends you a friend request, and you DO NOT want to accept that person's friend request, because that person is almost always a friend of one of your Facebook friends, that person can see your status updates, who you friend, what you Like, etc., unless (I suppose) you reject that person's friend request out of hand. If you block the person, of course, that would solve the problem.

I've friend requested a few people who have not accepted my request. But they haven't rejected my request, either. I understand. We're friendly in person, cordial and such, but they don't really want to be friendly outside of work or church. However, they don't know that I can see all of their updates. And I'm reluctant to tell them because they may think I'm some kind of stalking freak.

So just remember: If you get a friend request from someone you don't want to be FB friends with, reject the request. Or block the person. Don't just let it sit there, unapproved. Or set all of your privacy settings to "Friends Only."

I still don't see what you could possibly be doing that these "unapproved friends" need to be blocked from seeing it if they so choose...

What do I care if some stranger I don't know sees "the new Terminator movie was a disappointment, but the burrito I had at Qdoba was well worth the trip!" or similar status updates & information?

lol, that's awesome,

WHat, you luv the Giants ? OMFG, I knew it.


Anyways, you just have to be careful with what you put out. If you want to have a clean brand image and you're posting your latest alcoholic blackout on Facebook you know you screw yourself.
I think the vital thing is that Facebook may BOMB you with lots of specified ads in the future, which may or may not be a bad thing.