Should I be concerned that my wife opened a Facebook account?

[zridling]

Dear DC,
Not a day goes by that I don't see another report of someone being fired (or not hired) for something posted on their Facebook page. I know little about Facebook, but she has a great career in management and though her posts are plain and among her few friends and family, I find it a bad idea to risk your economic future to someone else's perception of your Facebook profile/posts/friends. It seems a lot of employers are using Facebook to get around employment law, e.g., the Human Resources manager who might say: "She's an atheist? Get that heathen out of my company!"

Signed,
Concerned and Worried

________________________________
Example article:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3905931/Pre-crime-Comes-to-the-HR-Dept.htm

[Paul Keith]

...it's not yet April's Fools... (Sorry if thread is supposed to be serious)

[app103]

Have her add this app from Bit Defender and pay special attention to the Privacy section. It will scan her profile and tell her what settings need adjusting. She should make sure she checks it periodically.

Also, she doesn't have to fill in any of the optional boxes on her profile. I certainly do not have anything filled in on the Philosophy section, where religious and political views are listed.

[Jibz]

From the BitDefender safego eula:

Whenever it detects a post/comment that is likely to be spam or part of a phishing/malware dissemination scheme, BitDefender safego will post a warning comment to the respective message. BitDefender safego can also periodically post on users. Facebook Wall page various statistics concerning the security status of that account and the application.s activity.

The application.s page (interface) may also display various BitDefender advertisements or direct links to BitDefender quizzes or questionnaires.

So it's an anti-spam solution that reserves the right to spam you?

Ok, jokes aside, it sounds like a good idea. I find it annoying having to check manually what new privacy options they have added that are set to share all by default all the time.

[app103]

You can change the settings so it doesn't spam your wall or leave "spam" comments on other people's spam/scam/malware posts if you want.

It doesn't just check your privacy settings...it also scans the posts from your friends in your news feed and checks them for malware, scam,  and spam links. The optional setting that may seem like spam in its description is to post a warning comment on anything bad it finds, warning both you and others not to click the link in the post, and alerting your friend about the bad post so they can remove it and track down the source of the bad autopost.

[mouser]

if she is half as outspoken as you, you have reason to worry  

[40hz]

Facebook away AFAIC.

If my bedroom walls could tell tales of my wild exploits, the silence would be deafening. 

[zridling]

No, I'm just talking about how employers are now using Facebook against workers. For example, if the employer is a god-believer, then he/she won't hire someone with atheist on their Facebook page. (But wait, Facebook doesn't even offer "atheist" as an option does it?) Same goes for any other personal info shared is what I'm afraid of. I trust the wife, not the corporation.

[40hz]

One trick is to deactivate your account, and only put it back up when you're logged into it. That's the only way AFAIK that you can completely control what gets put up on your page.

Supposedly this was first done by certain very public advocates of gay marriage as a technique to minimize some of the hate and phony postings that were showing up on their pages.

I believe you need to log on fairly regularly if you do this in order to avoid getting your account disabled by Facebook. Supposedly it works as long as you stay deactivated for less than one week at a stretch?

Any Facebookers out there know what the story is with this?

[f0dder]

That seems like a silly thing to do - people can't get in contact with you if you deactivate your account, can they? I guess it would be useful if you only use the account to stalk people, though.

[app103]

No, I'm just talking about how employers are now using Facebook against workers. For example, if the employer is a god-believer, then he/she won't hire someone with atheist on their Facebook page. (But wait, Facebook doesn't even offer "atheist" as an option does it?) Same goes for any other personal info shared is what I'm afraid of. I trust the wife, not the corporation.

If you lock your privacy down really tight, they can't see your photos, info, or anything else on your profile unless you add them as a friend. All they can see is your name and current profile pic (if you have one). And they don't have options to check for religious beliefs. It's a blank box in which you can type in anything you want. I have seen some crazy snarky stuff that people have typed in there. I didn't type anything in there...it's still blank. I don't have any religious views so that box is irrelevant.

So, if she locks down her privacy, doesn't friend people she doesn't really know (limit it to real friends and family), and doesn't use a scarlet A as her profile photo, it's not likely any stranger would know.

[f0dder]

So, if she locks down her privacy, doesn't friend people she doesn't really know (limit it to real friends and family), and doesn't use a scarlet A as her profile photo, it's not likely any stranger would know.

Limiting to real friends & family definitely reduces the risk of mischief... adding workmates can be a very bad idea. But in the end, if you have anything in the least compromising on facebook, all it takes is one disgruntled person on your friend list. And there's rumors of insurance companies etc having special deal with the facebook corp.

[app103]

Also never posting anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of cnn.com is a good idea too.

[nosh]

There has been more than one occasion when a FB vulnerability has made private information easily accessible to anyone who cares. If you think the employer is not beyond pasting a little Javascript in the address bar, it's best to read the "private" setting as "private (until the next kid pwns us)".