Facebook Privacy

I touched very briefly on privacy in facebook in my last blog post. Since then I have had talks with my ICT teacher about privacy on facebook. From these talks and several other sources, I am able to draw up one very simple easy rule of how to use facebook. This rule is only post a picture, or a video, or write a comment on someone else's page if you are 100% sure that you do not mind who discovers this information. Here I am talking about issues that go beyond your friends finding out that you have been slagging them off behind their back. I am talking about your safety for the future. I am almost 100% sure that our school knows ways of tracking our facebook's, I am sure they have fake accounts which makes it even easier to track our facebook's. This means that not only do you have to be careful about not slagging your friends off, but also not slagging your teachers off. To keep this idea more simple never insult someone over facebook. Be careful what you get photographed doing as with facebook it can be all over the web within hours, the same applies for videos. Photos and videos are more dangerous for when you are applying for a job. If an employer sees a photo of you throwing up at a party, or a video of you singing a drunken song they may think twice before they employ you. The final thing you should do with your facebook is go over your privacy settings and limit what information you show people. When I talk about information you reveal about yourself I mean do not put your number or email address up on your facebook page, and definitely not your home address, I also question whether you should put your religious and political views up or your relationship status on your facebook page. Your privacy settings are probably the most important things to your facebook page, if you do not spend time reviewing them then you should not have a facebook page. You should review your privacy settings thoroughly. In my opinion you should make yourself hidden to searches on facebook and google, make you profile and all of your pictures visible to only your friends, I also think you should only be friends with people you know well. In conclusion it is easy to be safe on facebook all it takes is common sense. What goes on facebook stays on facebook.