Post with Care

Do you assume that some areas of cyberspace are more private than others?

Surely you're aware that email messages can live well beyond their intended life – or audience – but what about social media sites where you can take comfort in being able to screen friend requests and have a say in who gets to participate in your online universe?

Well, don't get too comfortable.

And don't assume that what you intend as private online communication between yourself and select others is any more "safe" than an ordinary email message.

This is the digital world after all. Check out http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/23/privacy-disaster-at-twitter-direct-messages-exposed/ for the story about a hapless Twitter user with 650 followers who had the embarrassing experience of seeing her very private direct messages show up in her normal Twitter stream for the whole wide world to read. The problem was eventually traced back to a flaw with a third-party Twitter application but, nonetheless, damage done.

Another blogger describes his experience with Tweetbeep, a service that sends you an email alert (similar to a Google Alert) when a tweet is posted anywhere on Twitter that contains whatever keywords you specify. In this case, the blogger was able to see private content aggregated through Twitter's API that users thought was protected. "I was surprised to see that their Twitter page said their updates were protected and I had to submit a request to the user to follow them. I couldn't see the updates, but somehow tweetbeep was able to? That must mean there is a loophole… it is only a matter of time before websites start popping up that will allow you to read a Twitter user's private tweet time line." The full story is at http://www.thorschrock.com/2008/11/02/tweetbeep-can-see-through-twitter-privacy-protection/.

Does what happen in Facebook stay in Facebook? Check out: http://www.albumoftheday.com/facebook/. For further reading, try Your Privacy Is An Illusion: Why Facebook Employees are Profiling Users

What's a social media-savvy person to do?

My recommendation is to exercise the same discretion and good judgment online as you do in other parts of your personal and professional life.

Finally, remind yourself that "Once I hit the Enter key, I will have zero control over the future of this communication." If there's no inner voice urging caution regarding that which you're about to send, you should be just fine.