12 Temmuz 2006 Çarşamba

Another Reminder: Everything on the Net Can Be Used Against You

With the rise of social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and others, people are feeling more and more free to post everything about themselves online. From drunken pictures, to inappropriate and sometimes libelous rants, to even links and stories that normally people would not divulge to their closest friends. They feel that the Net gives perfect anonymity. And when it doesn't, they assume the weak security of various sites will serve in place of full anonymity.

This story reminds of the fallacy of such assumptions. A college student was looking for an internship and realized his Facebook website would raise a lot of troubling questions. So he "locked" it to only allow friends to see it. But when he faced the recruiter for an internship, he found out that under the Patriot Act, any state agency can bypass the "lock". He then had to face some VERY difficult questions.

Remember, the internet is a powerful tool, but every bit of info you post there is assuumed to be available TO THE WORLD. It is designed from the ground up for free information sharing. So it should be no shock that making it "unfree", even for your own safety, is not easy.

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