Privacy

The class discussion about privacy really got me thinking about how much we really share about ourselves online. Last night I received an email from my dad saying hmmmmm with a picture of me making a weird face with one of my friends. It was one of my profile pictures from facebook, but I thought that I had taken it down. Some how my dad gained access to this picture. If he became friends with anyone that I was friends with, he could see more of my profile and this goes for anyone online. Our social network sites aren't as secure as we think. Over the summer, I worked in my mom's HR department as basically the all around secretary. She talked to me about all of the people that she hires and how they check their facebooks and run searches on all of their potential employees. I felt weird about this because I have a facebook, but it does make sense. These profiles are online, anyone can see them. A company doesn't want to hire someone that will blacken their name, they want a good upstanding citizen to work for their company. The information posted online can be accessed by anyone. Facebook has it's privacy controls, but who's to say that the company that is interviewing you won't try to do what my dad did and befriend someone to gain a mutual connection to be able to see more of your profile. The thing that I guess I want to say is, if you post something online, expect to see it elsewhere. Pictures and information that people have access to can be saved and posted on different sites. We have to be extremely conscious of our activity. It may be a breech on our "creativity", but for our reputations, it is imperative that we watch ourselves.