Trust Facebook with your life and the cost might be that primo job you just landed. Seriously, dudes and dudettes – it could happen. Lately, it has been a well publicized fact that the social media giant’s almost non-existent security standards are akin to advertising your most intimate personal information on the moon in 100 mile high blinking red letters.
The question becomes this: Do you want EVERYTHING from your FB account to be available to EVERYONE on planet Earth? When we say everyone, that includes your boss. And co-workers. And next door neighbor.
Security consultant Ron Bowes used a simple piece of code to troll 100 million unprotected FB personal profiles and posted the results on BitTorrent for all to see. Even though it was only a publicity stunt and there was nothing illegal about the action, it served the purpose of illustrating exactly how porous FB is. Or “was” if you choose to believe the FB moguls’ claim that everything has been tightened up and it’s all hunky dory now.
The important part is this – a prospective boss could quickly scan your profile to read your posts, learn your hobbies, religion, and whatever else you were injudicious enough to post there. Think they might make a snap judgment about your employability if your favorite relaxation involves midget bowling, and you are a hardcore scientologist? Hey, right or wrong, people have lost great jobs by being a little too free and easy with their personal junk.
Don’t lose your first great job to stupidity and a porous social media interface. The very first thing you should do to prevent this is set your FaceBook settings so that un-registered users like Mr. Bowes can’t have surf your stuff. And give a really long thought to not being so damn personal all the time.
The Young Wealth Team
Flickr / Max-B
