Facebook

According to this article http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/11/us-facebook-idUSTRE74A07R20110511, Facebook may have accidently leaked personal information of users to third parties, particularly advertisers, over the past few years. This really should not come as a surprise, however. If you type something in on Google or Facebook like vacation spots or sports teams, advertisements relating to these subjects will appear on the side of your Facebook. Creepy? Absolutely. Never in my life have I googled wrestling or written about it, yet I had a bunch of advertisements on the side of my page relating to it. I liked Adele’s page on Facebook and ads relating to her music pop up. Some of the ads are even personalized, starting off with “Hey (insert name here)” or “Like our page, (insert name here”).

Some people spill their life stories on Facebook and upload pictures every chance they can for all their friends to see. Facebook has allowed us to communicate and open up to one another in ways that have never been done before and given us the freedom to post and say whatever we want, but then we complain about how Facebook is compromising our privacy. Once something is put on the internet, it is there to stay – forever. There seems to be a trend of underage kids putting up photos of themselves and their friends drinking as well as smoking pot. Schools and employers look at these things and do make a decision whether or not to accept or hire you based on what they have seen. What you put online does affect your “real life” actions.

Putting personal information online, especially Facebook, has always seemed risky and the news of Facebook leaking it confirms how easily information can be spread.