Social media blogs are everywhere. It's extremely easy for anybody to search for a facebook, myspace, twitter, etc. account just by typing in their name in the google search field. I think it's become pretty crazy how easy it is to find somebody's personal information that quickly nowadays.
I was speaking with my manager today and she was telling me that she had peeked at my facebook profile before she had hired me. I looked at her funny and realized that I had set my profile cautiously in order for strangers to find nothing about me. She had told me that she just wanted to see what I looked like and wanted to see personal information as well. The good thing was that all my information on my profile was hidden and has been hidden for reason like that.
Today, facebook has over 600 million users and I can guarantee that more than 3/4 of the profiles out there are not restricted enough to outside users. Social media sites have given us a new way to stalk legally. Not only is it scary, it's easy to do and anybody can do it. I have some suggestions that might help keep your information private.
1. Keep profile settings updated daily to insure information is not leaked
2. Hide profile pictures and album pictures
3. Keep the people you know best or friends and only let them access your profile
4. Don't accept random friend requests from strangers
5. Don't discuss work or incidents at work in your status updates
You make some great points about keeping your information private on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Anyone with an internet connection and browse millions of peoples pages and find information that might be threatening to them. It's good to have the security features that disables anyone that isn't a "friend" to view your page.
ReplyDeleteWhat's also interesting about your post from a hiring manager's perspective now they have a tool to get answers to those questions that are potentially against the law to ask. Such as anything regarding the following:
ReplyDelete•Race
•Color
•Sex
•Religion
•National origin
•Birthplace
•Age
•Disability
•Marital/family status
Answers to these questions can say a lot about a person.