Facebook is a great place to keep up with your friends and what they're doing... it's also a great way for people who aren't your friends and friends and family to creep on you. When you put information Facebook for your friends, you're also giving that information to future employers, past employers, teachers, fellow students, co-workers, criminals, insurance companies and government officials.
Here are 7 things you should not be posting on Facebook... they could turn around and bite you in the arse!
1. Confessionals
Congratulations Carmen! We're all very happy for you, but don't forget that your parents, friends, family and potential employers also now know that you are getting some action. Probably not the best kind of thing to be putting on Facebook.
2. Risky Behavior
There are stories surfacing about insurance companies raising premiums based on Facebook and Twitter posts... if your insurance carrier sees that you are sharing information that could affect your health and well-being then you might literally be "paying" for your status updates.
3. Your Phone Number
"I lost my cell phone, send me your phone numbers!" How many times have we seen this on Facebook? But don't do it! There's a dude named Tom Scott who created an app called Evil that displays phone numbers published anywhere on Facebook. When you put a phone number on Facebook, ANYONE can see it... including Tom Scott and his app.
4. When You're Not Going To Be Home
I know that you want everyone to know that you're heading to Cabo, but the internet is full of criminals and you don't want people knowing that all of your belongings are going to be left alone and unguarded for a week. You're inviting people to come and steal your stuff. I read about a site called Please Rob Me that collects information from sites like Facebook, Twitter and others and lists them as "new opportunities" for people who want to steal your stuff. Please Rob Me has stopped posting when people are not home, but you never know when the next site will pop up.
5. Your Home Address
Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso, and Victor Rodriguez are a group of young men who reportedly stole as much as $200,000 worth of stuff from people living in an around the Nashua, New Hampshire area. Cops couldn't figure out how the crimes were connected until they realized that each and every house robbed had posted their private information on Facebook. These guys knew exactly where to go and when their victims would be out.
6. Your Birthdate/Place/Mother's Maiden Name
Who doesn't like getting a hundred "Happy Birthday" wishes for their birthday on Facebook? It's fun and makes you feel popular, but revealing your exact birthday and the place of your birth is like giving your pin number to criminals. ALSO, researchers at Carnegie Mellon were able to reconstruct peoples social security numbers using their birthdays and the place of their birth. If Carnegie Mellon can do it, so can smart internet criminals.
7. Inappropriate Photos
We all know that wild Facebook photos can cost you your job. You get tagged in a bunch of pics from Spring Break and the next thing you know you're the topic of coffee break conversation around the office and people are giving you weird and disapproving looks in the hall. Even pictures you have deleted can come back to haunt you... Facebook's servers can store deleted photos for an unspecified amount of time. Untag yourself from photos and remove them when possible but you should know that even if you delete them... savvy people might still be able to find them.
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