Watchdogs warned ...

...that talking out their arse could damage their future careers.

Comments

[David]

I'd just like to make it clear that the David Smith quoted (Information Commissioner's Office) is not me!

But hang on. Maybe it is. Oh no - he's taken my identity ...

[Nigel]

Presumably your warning also applies to future watchdogs compiling their facebook profiles ;) Future heads of JIC take note!

[CliveFlashman]

While I agree that sweeping statements by watchdogs are to be avoided but are made too often nonetheless, I do have first hand experience of the sort of thing being discussed here.

My stepdaughter has accepted hundreds of people as facebook friends, many of whom she does not know. She had a message board going where she actually gave her mobile phone number in response to one question - for all these hundreds of people to see.

She then started receiving lots of unwanted calls, and eventually had to get a new sim card and change her number.

I think that many young people are quite naive about what they put up on their social networking site pages, and do not consider the implications of their actions, or how the information they display could be used.

rather than shut down the sites and constrain the users, what we need is better education for youngsters about personal information security.

[Euan Semple]

Helping people understand the worlds they operate in and taking responsibility for their actions is a good thing. Pontification by "experts" and scaremongering by journalists are not.

[Nigel]

Did you read Matthew Helfgott on 'Facebook is ruining Christmas'?

Matthew Helfgott, 20, one of the 20,000 signatories of MoveOn's petition, wrote: "I saw my gf [girlfriend] bought an item I had been saying I wanted... so now part of my christmas gift has been ruined. Facebook is ruining christmas!"

Well boo hoo!! (I fell off my chair laughing)

[Nigel]

Even funnier: if you Google Matthew Helfgott you find that it was actually a Hannukah present from his girlfriend....

[Badger Gravling]

If it is truly so dangerous to let anyone view your profile, then the biggest worry must be for Hasan Elahi, who has been documenting everything he does for a few years in response to being detained as a suspected terrorist (Rather than a university professor, which he is)
http://trackingtransience.net/

In all seriousness, a bit of common sense protects you from most of the problems out there, and as posters have said above, education helps.

There's also the other side, which is that perhaps banks etc should start changing the way they allow accounts to be opened and sued etc in the face of changing technology:
http://fasterfuture.blogspot.com/2007/11/whoops-there-goes-your-identity-mass.html

[Earl Mardle]

Small plug for some people in my part of the world. http://tinyurl.com/2um37t

Instead of lots of prescriptive fear mongering, they focus on resilience. The point being that crap will happen in life, online and off, and that dealing with it is more important than trying to avoid it.

BTW, the two biggies are distress caused by cyber-bullying and by links to autopsy photos.

But the latest survey had 100% of kids between 9 and 15 had an online presence; regardless of social and economic status, geographical location or gender.

Their online activities are, in the vast majority of cases, an extension of, vital and integral to, their meatspace lives.

And while online indiscretions may be a problem, among the upcoming generation those who have polished, indiscretion-free online personas will NOT be trusted because they not only have something to hide like everyone else, they are too good at doing it.

[Euan Semple]

Excellent point Earl