Dropping Facebook?

Facebook was scary before; see the cartoon above. Facebook is a whole new scary these days.

So they claim.

Facebook still captures all the same information. That picture of you drunk and stumbling didn’t suddenly appear; it’s been there. Your friend didn’t suddenly tag you in it; you were already there. Not a thing changed in that respect.

What’s changed is the visibility. That’s what everyone is screaming about anyway. Truth be told all of that information was available before and to most of the same people. It was just obscured but not secure.

No more obscurity.

What’s that really mean? It means before when only your close buds could see you tagged at a gay bar, now your mom will likely be able to find that as well. It means that your wife might see you joined the local swingers group. It might mean a future employer sees the story about the wild concert night with you tagged in it.

Should you worry?

Worry? I’d say if you’re guilty of any of the above perhaps you could worry less about being found out and just come clean. I know that sounds ludicrous right? Who would admit to their mom about being gay or to their future employer that they were arrested for pot possession a few years back or to their wife about infidelity?

Delete your profile?

Sure. Go ahead. Delete your profile. Remove all those pictures. Quit all those groups. Beg your friends to remove those tags. That’s great except for one detail; the Internet isn’t a white board you can just erase with a gesture. Well, unless you compare it to a white board on which you wrote with permanent marker. Traces will be left till the board goes away.

Those pictures aren’t gone. Facebook has them. They promised you they’d keep them safe. Safe from who? Like some terrorist is going to steal that picture of you drunk and naked. Mostly safe from you.  Deleting them just means they’re hidden to you, not to Google and other systems that cache information on the Internet. Your mom can find them if she gets lucky. Your employer will find them.

Will you quit Facebook?

(I’m not quitting but will you? Love to hear back.)

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