Sunday, October 5, 2008

Privacy matters


For a couple weeks now we have been discussing the importance of having a clean facebook profile due to the fact that unexpected others can take a peek at our profiles unwarranted. This is for serious prospects for your future such as someone who may be highering you for a job and other serious commitments.

When we had the guest speaker in class she mentioned that we can limit our facebook profiles and other social medias to only allow certain people access to our profiles. All this talk about proofing our names on the Internet has me nervous. I immediately went home from class and set up as many restrictions I could. It is kind of scary knowing that your future can possibly be determined what you thought was one night of fun with your girlfriends out on the town (just for example). I still wonder that even if you set up restrictions to only allowing certain people access to your information if people can still get around it? Is social media really beneficial or harmful?


Click here for detailed information on how to protect your privacy on facebook
How to protect your privacy on facebook

3 comments:

Shannon N. said...

I had a similar reaction... while I didn't rush home to change any privacy settings (I've tried to always keep in mind that my mother could easily see what I put online) I couldn't help but wonder where the line should be drawn.

We're constantly being told to watch what we put online and be careful about what we have on our Facebook pages. And yet, it seems as though anyone who really wants to know stuff about us can get around our privacy settings!

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it all pans out in the end... I can only hope social media is heading in the direction or useful and not harmful!

melwilltell said...

While I don't personally have a Facebook acct. I have a myspace which I monitor closely. I like to make sure that any information on there that is accessible to the public are things that I wouldn't mind my grandma seeing. It's scary now a days knowing that ANYONE could see something like that and judge you and your job capabilities in a matter of moments. We've got to be more careful!

Christine Pegg said...

I know that we can only control so much of what we have online about ourselves. On Facebook, it's not that easy to keep track when someone tags you in a photo or in a note, but you do have the option to be alerted when someone tags. Having to go and un-tag yourself is the irritating part. I think Facebook tries to do as much as they can, offering these privacy options, but it is ultimately the users responsibility to make sure their digital footprint is what they want it to be.