I know lots of people who absolutely love Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter and that's great as long as we are careful. There are lots of good things about these networks, but my caution about these particular social networks (because of their sharing networking) is to be careful of what and how much personal information you publish on them! Even innocently mentioning to Aunt Betty or your best friend that you're going out to dinner and a movie on Saturday night or vacation on such and such dates is dream information for criminals.
Among many other red flag articles I've read over the past few months, the one that really was an eye opener was about a gang of burglars in New Hampshire who stole upwards to $200,000.00 worth of items in a short period of time from homes of people who had announced on Facebook about their lovely away from home plans!
These tech savvy criminals peruse these social sites and please don't think for one single minute that they can't easily find your home. It doesn't matter where you live because, unfortunately, these types of criminals are in every region worldwide. Be careful out there!
By Deeli from Richland, WA
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Just read another article showing another reason to be careful about what you share:
Price Chopper Supermarket Emails Customer's Employer, Demands Disciplinary Action For Negative Tweet
Last week, a customer at Price Chopper in upstate New York tweeted a relatively mild insult about the store: "Every time I go to Price Chopper I realize why they are not Wegmans". (regarding barren produce section and bad in store signage.) In return, Price Chopper contacted the man's employer and complained about him.
Although Price Chopper did reply to the customer directly, they did not wait for a response before dragging the individual's employer into the mix. In an email addressed to a seemingly random list of executives at the customer's workplace, including the customer's supervisor, Price Chopper labeled the individual as destructive and negative. They suggested that this individual's distaste for their stores could jeopardize the relationship between Price Chopper and the company where the individual is employed, and they requested action be taken against the individual.
Great and timely reminder! I learned the hard way to watch what I say on Facebook. (I use the Mobile site, which is easier for my screen reader.) The day my marketing company's CEO accepted my friend request (which I'd extended at the urging of my manager) was the same day I said something in a slightly indelicate manner about hubby. My CEO must've been offended at the language, because his listing was gone as quickly as it had showed up.
On a more personal note: my sister's spouse was being a total butt-head during our recent family reunion. When my out-of-town niece asked on an open status-update thread about the reunion, I mentioned I'd wanted to slap the fellow in question at one point (except I used his name). I got a FB email from my sister blasting me for "talking bad about her husband on an open forum." Of course, I had to track back through the site to even find what I'd said!
One more note, on the subject of caution with your personal info: If you sign in on the full FB site and go to your account settings, then "FB Places," there are two check boxes you should uncheck. I believe it has to do with tagging your location?
Thank you so much for this post, Deeli.
I wish everyone took this very very seriously but they will not. People will continue to get fired for things that they post like the school teacher calling her students germ-bags. Then she gets invited to the Today Show and says it was all a joke! Ugh. Well, I hope she was still laughing when she was fired.
And people will continue to get arrested for posting things that are illegal. A 28 year old and a 21 year old from Inverness, Florida were just arrested for posting an illegally taken deer. The Florida Wildlife Conversation received information that the photos of the deer had been published on Facebook and investigated the tip. The FWC was able to determine that the deer was killed well out of deer season. This is a federal offense!
This site is really making people so so unsmart (...stupid!).
Thanks again for the post. =)
I don't want to sound like a sourpuss, but this tip is common sense and is not unique. I do appreciate the effort behind the post.
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