If you want to surf the zeitgeist, then look at the most common queries on Google. When I looked the other day, "How do I delete my Facebook account?" was fourth on the "How do I...?" list. Just to put this in context, number two was "How do I know if I'm pregnant?" You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to twig that something's up."
There is a wonderful graphic on the New York Times site showing how Facebook's privacy statement has got larger and larger to cover the growing holes in its privacy policy. The mapping isn't perfect: if it were, the declaration of Facebook's dedication to privacy would have to be of almost infinite size, since the default amount of privacy Facebook now offers is practically zero. When the site first started, very few people could join, and nothing became public, even to them, without the users' express permission. Now everyone can join and everything is public to almost all of them unless you make a determined effort to hide it. This effort has to be renewed every six months or so when Facebook revises its privacy policy to make it more opaque and less effective. There is a wonderfully graphic animation of the process at this site.
2010 is shaping up as a good year for Facebook scare stories. Earlier this month the rabidly right-wing Daily Mail exposed Facebook as a den of drooling paedophiles waiting to prey on its readers' innocent young darlings, only to have to correct the story later in the face of threats of legal action from Facebook. Then this week a story that claimed Facebook use was responsible for an increase in the spread of syphilis was picked up by the usual suspects among the UK "news"papers.
Many employers now search workers' blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts – but are they any of their business?
Maxine Frances Roper
Wednesday 24 March 2010
Should employers follow workers' online lives on sites such as Facebook? Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
An American professor recently made the news after students discovered disparaging remarks she had made about them on Facebook. Gloria Gadsden, who taught sociology at Philadephia's East Stroudsburg University, thought her remarks were visible only to her Facebook friends, but due to the configuration of her profile they were also accessible to friends-of-friends – including some of her students. The ill-judged remarks included: "does anyone know where to find a very discreet hitman? Yes, it's been that kind of day" and "Had a good day today – didn't even want to kill ONE student!"
