FACEBOOK... Do you use it?
By Aussies2007
@Aussies2007 (5336)
Australia
February 16, 2009 10:11pm CST
I tried to sign up in Facebook a couple of months ago... and when it asked for all my personal information and demanded access to all my information stored into my Yahoo account... I said "No Way!"
People don't seem to realise what they are doing on the internet.
In the real world... we have privacy laws to protect our personal information and we are very reluctant to divulge it.
Now people go and plaster their personal information on the internet for the whole world to see it. 
In the nineties... when the internet was in its infancy... the great appeal about posting on the internet was that you could do it anonysmously.
With the number of creeps surfing the internet... it is only a matter of time before they use your information to destroy you. Like this example.
Cruel Facebook hoax ends marriage
A married man who drove more than 600km to see a woman he met on Facebook has been the victim of a hoax by rival football supporters.
Manchester United fan, Stuart Slann, spent nine hours in his car travelling to meet "Emma", who he had been sharing suggestive emails with.
Believing he was about to enjoy their first night of romance together, Stuart, 39, finally arrived at a remote Scottish farm where he waited for the encounter.
After three hours sitting in his car with "Emma" nowhere in sight, a phone call soon revealed the cruel hoax.
He was surprised to hear the voice of a man with a Liverpool accent.
"Hello Stuart, do you remember us?," they asked.
"It's them Scouse lads who threw you in the pool, you've been framed."
Last year he fell out with the two Liverpool supporters who were staying in the same holiday hotel in Mexico .
They argued about whose football team was better: Manchester United or Liverpool.
To add to the elaborate hoax the men put a recorded phone conversation between them and Stuart on the internet.
It resulted in Stuart's wife Louise finding out about his potential fling on Facebook and she later left him.
And that's not all. With your personal information at hand... the government and the police can monitor everything you do and track you down really easy to your front door.
So much for anonymity on the Internet.
What are you doing to yourselves?
In the nineties... when the internet was in its infancy... the great appeal about posting on the internet was that you could do it anonysmously.
With the number of creeps surfing the internet... it is only a matter of time before they use your information to destroy you. Like this example.
Cruel Facebook hoax ends marriage
A married man who drove more than 600km to see a woman he met on Facebook has been the victim of a hoax by rival football supporters.
Manchester United fan, Stuart Slann, spent nine hours in his car travelling to meet "Emma", who he had been sharing suggestive emails with.
Believing he was about to enjoy their first night of romance together, Stuart, 39, finally arrived at a remote Scottish farm where he waited for the encounter.
After three hours sitting in his car with "Emma" nowhere in sight, a phone call soon revealed the cruel hoax.
He was surprised to hear the voice of a man with a Liverpool accent.
"Hello Stuart, do you remember us?," they asked.
"It's them Scouse lads who threw you in the pool, you've been framed."
Last year he fell out with the two Liverpool supporters who were staying in the same holiday hotel in Mexico .
They argued about whose football team was better: Manchester United or Liverpool.
To add to the elaborate hoax the men put a recorded phone conversation between them and Stuart on the internet.
It resulted in Stuart's wife Louise finding out about his potential fling on Facebook and she later left him.
And that's not all. With your personal information at hand... the government and the police can monitor everything you do and track you down really easy to your front door.
So much for anonymity on the Internet.
What are you doing to yourselves?4 people like this
23 responses
@tjhtommyj (261)
• Canada
17 Feb 09
If you're worried about being tracked or having your information revealed then don't sign into the internet. You can create a fake email with a fake address in a fake country and they still know exactly who you are and where you reside in. How? Because to access the Internet you're using an IP address. Every IP address is different and specific to a location. No matter what you do on the Internet if someone wishes to track it, they can. Anybody who wanted to could track every site you've been to, every search you've ever conducted, and information you've shared anywhere on the net and that includes places like mylot, yahoo or facebook. It may not be legal for anyone to do this, but that hasn't stopped people before. The only information they would be asking for is the same information you would be using in any regestered website, your address, your phone number, and your email. The only thing different in a place like Yahoo that you wouldn't have already given to Facebook is your address book. NOTHING you do on the internet is annonymous, Facebook included. What they are doing is no different from any other site, social networking or not.
1 person likes this
@tjhtommyj (261)
• Canada
17 Feb 09
That's exactly what I'm talking about. The creeps. I think you need to understand your own problem with the issue here. Of course the police wouldn't do that because it's illegal. But that's not stopping the creeps you're talking about. These "creeps" if they want the information badly enough the fact that it's illegal will not stop them. The story you told you was a good example. It was a practical joke that had serious implications on the man's life. It's low, and it's not right. There are several stories just like that. But as you said, stories like that can occur from the very information you leave in your yahoo or eve give to mylot but you're still here? So what's stopping you from giving it to facebook as well? It's not doing anything these other sites aren't doing. If anything, you could be thanking Facebook for stating that they are asking for the information through the registration process and not leave it hidden in the Terms of Use/Terms of Service that not many people ever read. None of your information is totally and completely safe on the internet. You can do things to make things more difficult for those to obtain, even leave them with nothing but that illegal option I mentioned but if these "creeps" want it badly enough they will obtain it. It's there. It may be designed for use by only a select few, but the information is there. The same hazards can be said to be in place while talking over the phone as well. No phone line is safe and information given through it can be obtained. But that's a different arguement for a different discussion.
@jshekhar (1562)
• India
17 Feb 09
Although I appreciate the effort you have put up in starting this discussion, it is my humble request that you please check for that topic once before starting a discussion on your own. I may sound rude but please do not start a discussion just for the sake of it or just for making money.
I remember responding to a very similar topic a few days back and when I saw "0 responses" in this one, I came to know that it is another one of those repeated discussions.
1 person likes this
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
17 Feb 09
Did you bother reading the question?
Or did you just read the title?
1 person likes this
• United States
17 Feb 09
This discussion didn't seem to be a money making proposition to me...
I use facebook sparingly. As a person who makes their living using the internet [I am a web designer] I am very aware of how easy it is to find information on people.
Making it even easier for people to 'paint a picture of your life,' not only by what you write and upload to your facebook account, but by collating all your friends' postings, video choices, etc. there too - using facebook can easily leave an unflattering first impression even for the most 'well behaved' among us.
I have had to de-friend people on facebook that I am related to because they just didn't get that whatever profanity they post will show up on my home page there. For that reason I am also selective on twitter and a myriad of other social networking sites.
As for giving facebook lots of personal information, I can't recall anything too invasive, but I joined a few years ago.
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
18 Feb 09
Tens of thousands of Facebook users are protesting new policies that they say grant the social-networking site the ability to control their information forever, even after they cancel their accounts.
Facebook's new terms of use, updated February 4, largely went unnoticed until the popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com pointed out the changes on Sunday.
That prompted a clarification from Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, although the new terms remain in force. Zuckerberg told users in a blog post on Monday that "on Facebook , people own their information and control who they share it with."
When someone shares a photo, a message or a status update telling friends what they are up to at the moment, they first need to grant Facebook a licence so the site can pass that information along to authorised friends, Zuckerberg said. Without the licence, he said, Facebook wouldn't be able to help people share information.
Zuckerberg said the new terms are necessary to reflect the fact that friends may retain a copy of that message or other information once a user shares it with them.
"Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message," Zuckerberg said. "We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear."
Zuckerberg did acknowledge that Facebook , which boasts 175 million users around the world, still has "work to do to communicate more clearly" about how information is shared on the site.
The rapidly growing site has had several run-ins with users over its short history.
In late 2007, for example, a tracking tool called "Beacon" caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their shopping habits and activities at other websites. After initially defending the practice, Facebook ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off.
@jazel_juan (15747)
• Philippines
18 Feb 09
I do have a facebook and yahoo and myspace ( but i dont use it lol) and friendster, ive put information but nott really those that are too confidential..so i find it safe and it is a way for me to communicate with friends..and it is in my prerogative if i would entertain people i do not know...
1 person likes this
@redhotpogo (4401)
• United States
18 Feb 09
i didn't really have any personal info asked about me on facebook, or really anything private shown on there. the site just sucks. you can't do anything. its like "microsoft paint" to "adobe photo shop" there's no control. its basically like emailing someone. craptacular.
1 person likes this
@masata (408)
• Indonesia
18 Feb 09
I used to use facebook a year ago but no longer use nowadays. One of the reasons is as you mentioned. Even though there is a privacy setting but we can never guarantee what will facebook do with our account. Another reason is that I think I waste quite alot of time in facebook doing some unproductive activities. With these, I decide to delete/alter all my personal information before finally deactivating my facebook account.
1 person likes this
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
17 Feb 09
Just for the hang of it, I had enrolled at Orkut. To put it mildly, I was shocked by the open format it displayed! Apart from the anonymous thing, I believe that if I am friends with you and I share some personal messages with you, that should indeed stay personal…its not for the entire world to see what’s in my personal comment page or what my ‘friends’ say about me! Also anybody can just drop in and write whatever they feel about me, tamper with whatever is there in my page, nothing against abusive and suggestive languages…I mean it’s a vast open chain and I am a pawn in it for anybody to play around! And of course I did not like the SMS type language much in demand and use there. Needless to say, that was the beginning and end of my foray into internet socialising.
I like mylot precisely coz of the privacy and maturity of discussions here! It is the only website I am connected with.
1 person likes this
@Darkwing (21583)
•
17 Feb 09
I'm on Facebook, but I don't use my real name... I never do! I'm fully aware of the scams and such that go on, but I can see your point... there are those who are relatively new to social networks and such, who trust the site with their full details. My son never gives his real date of birth for instance, so that throws out pfishers. I sometimes change my year of birth, but normally my name. Sometimes though, I can be a bit careless, like in here, when I tell others my real name.
There's a lot of people out there purporting to be somebody they aren't. They even use photographs which aren't real and it sickens me. Some of them are not hard to suss out but others are quite clever, so I feel your warning will be appreciated by a good number of people, including me.
Brightest Blessings.
@eaforeman6 (8979)
• United States
17 Feb 09
Hi, I do not have a facebook account. I do not intend on having one. I do not think that you should be required to give your yahoo information. That is private. That hoax was cruel and its terrible. There will always be good and bad with the internet. There will be a certain amount of risks with anything you ever do on the net. We just have to use as much caution as possible. I dont feel like I really need so many accounts. I wouldnt use them anyway. Appreciate the information and happy mylotting!@eaforeman6 (8979)
• United States
17 Feb 09
I appreciate you explaining this. I have never looked at facebook before. I just think that if people are honest and use respect on these sites, thats the best for everyone. What is your opinion of facebook ? Is it like myspace?@eaforeman6 (8979)
• United States
17 Feb 09
I really dont use my yahoo account . I have had it for a long time but just dont hardly ever use it. There is no information there for them to access. Its not my favorite so I wouldnt need anything on it anyway!and I dont want to use yahoo that much either. Its just not my preference.I dont need a facebook account either because I dont have time, for one thing ! Happy mylotting!@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
17 Feb 09
It is a lie.
It is not optional.
I could not sign in without giving them access to my Yahoo account.
And the reason they want access is to verify the information you have with Yahoo to make sure it match with the one you gave them.
Now of course... you could use a fake identity with Yahoo in order to have a fake identity with Facebook. But I could not be bother.
1 person likes this
@seabeauty (1480)
• United States
17 Feb 09
I do have a Facebook account. What am I doing to myself? Well based on that question, I must be causing myself harm.
I heard that now, potential employers are looking at applicant's Myspace and Facebook accounts to see if there are any incriminating photos or information that would prevent them from hiring certain people.
1 person likes this
@izathewzia (5134)
• Philippines
17 Feb 09
I don't use a facebook. I have a friendster account and it is enough for me. I enjoy communicating with my love ones abroad through it. Updating each other's happening through uploaded pictures and sending messages and testimonies.
1 person likes this
@ejaji123 (96)
• India
17 Feb 09
I don't use FaceBook much. I did create a profile and a few friends added me. However, after that I realized that it's risky to have just anyone be able to see your pic, know about you, and also see your whole network of friends. At least I am not comfortable with that. So I tried to change the privacy setting a little bit. Now only my friends can see my pic and who my other friends are. It's better to try to remain as private as possible on the net.
1 person likes this
@syankee525 (6261)
• United States
18 Feb 09
this show how dumb people are. i would never do none of these things for real. i am on facebook and myspace. i do like myspace better but either or i would never do something dumb like meeting another woman or any of that stuff.
had some female wanted to meet up with me, i was like ain't happening i am married and i am happy
1 person likes this
@shiena888 (72)
•
17 Feb 09
i have a face book...but never use it....it sucks....
1 person likes this
@irishidid (8688)
• United States
17 Feb 09
I have an account but the only time I go there is when I get a message from a friend on it. I'm not really impressed with the site. I can't put my music on it and the add-ons are horrible. It's pretty much just another place I link the articles I've written.
I mainly stay for the only two friends I have on there. I'm just so popular. 
@AnnieOakley1 (5596)
• Canada
17 Feb 09
No, I do not use Facebook.
Since I haven't tried, I had no idea that it was that involved and you had to input so much personal information that I'm not so sure I want to put "out there" either. There's just too much Identity Theft going on for me to feel secure about it. Thanks for the heads up.
As for the fella getting found out that he was going to cheat, well, I have no sympathy for him in that regard, since he WAS going to cheat, so good thing his wife found out now and left.
But as for the fraud....well, I'm saddened that this hoax was perpetrated, but it doesn't sound to me like they stole anything from his bank accounts or did anything other than lure him into committing adultery. I would need more information to assume further.
@lilcee (2703)
• United States
21 Feb 09
I just signed up for facebook because my daughter wanted me to. There are a lot of people from my church on there and several of my relatives. But, personally, I don't see what the big hype is about it. To me it's hard to figure out and not very interesting to me. I liked myspace better when I was on there. I probably won't do much with facebook. It looks boring to me.
As for my email, the only time I had to give it was to sign up. They asked for it when I wanted to find friends but it was optional.
@mermaidivy (15395)
• United States
17 Feb 09
I have a facebook account, I didn't use it very much. Since I found it has texas hold'em on there, I started using more just for fun playing poker
