Reading and Activity #5

            Privacy is something extremely important in my life. I do not like a lot of people knowing my business. If I did, I would share what I had to with the world probably through Facebook or some sort of social media. Keeping some things private does not only mean my business but also my personal privacy (people getting in my bubble, searching through my things, etc). I am extremely concerned with how our individual privacy rights are slowly being taken from us. The thing that scares me most is that we will not even know when this will happen. The government could be listening in on phone calls or following your every move whether on the Internet or physically. You hear all the time about large companies being hacked. This makes me wonder, if they can hack the system of large corporations as threats or attacks they can surely hack into my system and are probably not far from hacking private governmental documents.

            This article was a very interesting article to read because of the facts that are given truly surprised me. For instance how much control Facebook actually has through the Internet. It is a great social site to share your photos and what you are doing, but people need to think twice before posting their statuses. Posting something about where you are going can tip off burglars that you will not be home. Did you know Facebook gets a report every time you visit a site where there is a button to “like” Facebook, you do not even have to press the button. It is things like this that make me wonder, why does that even matter if we are not actually dealing with or through Facebook to access that site. The article makes sure you know how to protect yourself by thinking before you type a status and regularly check your exposure. See how your page looks to others.

            It is actually a nice feature to have this ability to see how your profile looks to the public so you know what to hide. Honestly the only reason I still have a Facebook is to put pictures up for family and likewise. I do not even remember the last time I posted a status about something on Facebook it usually through Twitter. Reading this article really opened my eyes to the power Facebook has. I will definitely try to spread the word to have people make SURE their profiles are private!