Re: Facebook Question

Adrian:

In my previous posting, I did not mean to hint or imply, that visually impaired 
individuals should not use social networks.  Like you, I believe that we, who 
are handicapped or disabled, should participate in whatever activities, as far 
as possible in the same way that individuals who are not handicapped or 
disabled do.

Unfortunately, so many people think, that when they delete a file from a disk 
on their computer, an email message, or a message from a social network site, 
the file on the disk, the email message, message on a social network site, has 
been completely erased.  As you may or may not be aware, this is definitely not 
the case.

I would suggest that list members go and Google themselves on Google.  You will 
be very surprised about what comes up about yourselves.

One day last year, I Googled myself.  There were copies of email messages that 
I had posted to various lists in 2002.

There is an expression in the retail trade that says, "buyer be ware".

The same expression could and should apply when you are using any form of 
communication over the internet, "user be ware".

In general, I have made it a practice, that when I receive a communication that 
upsets me, is insulting to me, or makes me angry, I do my best to fight the 
urge to reply to the communication immediately, although it is instinctive to 
do so.  In this, I have sometimes failed to follow my own practice and 
regretted the decision to respond to the communication immediately.  On those 
occasions, I have fallen fowl of "respond now and repent at leisure".

As I told my grand Daughter, when I was in England recently, when she was going 
to write something to one of her friends that was certainly not complementary 
and could even be considered libelous, what you write today in haste, can and 
may have serious consequences and can and may have a negative effect in your 
life, for many years to come.  Luckily, she listened to her old granddad and 
waited until the next day to write a much better, constructed comment to what 
her friend had posted in her message to my grand daughter.

I told her a story, which may or may not be true,  about someone who had gone 
for an interview at a well known corporation that wrote computer software.

Having got the job, he then posted comments on MySpace and FaceBook, that he 
only took the job because it was a means of getting a better job.  He went on 
to say that he would be out of there as soon as possible.

He did not know it, someone in his circle of contacts, forwarded a copy of the 
message to someone they new in the company.

The following day, this individual received a communication from the company 
where he had got the job, thanking him for his comments and informing him that 
they had reviewed there decision to give him the job and wishing him success in 
his job search.

If the story is true, I wouldn't mind betting his comments were circulated to 
other businesses in the same field of business.

Sincerely:

Dave Durber

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Adrian Spratt 
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 4:29 PM
  Subject: RE: Facebook Question


   Hi, Dave. 

  As you can tell from the message I posted, I share your privacy concerns. 
However, Facebook, like Twitter and other social networking outlets, has become 
an inescapable part of life for most of us. Naturally, it's important that 
visually impaired people have equal access. We must participate wherever there 
is communication.

  My concern is that JAWS and other screenreader users may not be alerted to 
all the potential privacy compromises as they complete forms on the Facebook 
website. For example, I know JAWS users who tab from field to field in 
application forms without first checking the entire page for alerts and other 
clues about risks.

  We shouldn't discourage use of Facebook, but everyone needs to know what the 
consequences might be.

  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Dave Durber
  Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 3:58 PM
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: Re: Facebook Question

  Not respecting privacy settings, is one of the main criticisms which FaceBook 
has had to face and answer in the past few months here in the US.

  As has been said before, what you write in emails, in Tweets using Twitter 
and on yours and other people's walls using FaceBook, never goes away.

  Also, remember, everything you post on-line, gets filtered by just about 
every security agency in every country. Also, remember that companies and 
corporations also monitor social network sites, not only to gather information 
about current employees, but also to gain information about potential employees.

  Remember, "big brother is watching".

  Sincerely:

  Dave Durber

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Adrian Spratt
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:39 PM
  Subject: RE: Facebook Question

  On the surface, this isn't a JAWS question, but I wonder if visually impaired 
users can tell via our screenreader just how much Facebook compromises privacy. 
After everything I'd read in the media to caution me, I asked the proverbial 
sighted assistant to help me create a page. I have no desire to advertise, but 
I'd found that without a Facebook account, I couldn't gain access to events and 
information posted by Facebook users I know. Despite all the care we took to 
maximize privacy during the sign-up process, Facebook reached into my address 
book and notified several contacts that I'd joined. I got a flurry of touching 
requests to befriend these contacts. I replied to all these people off-Facebook 
and explained my reservations about posting anything on this website. In my 
case, so far no harm done, but it could have been very awkward. Just know that 
what Cy and Dave warn is only the tip of the iceberg.

  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Cy Selfridge
  Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 7:52 PM
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: RE: Facebook Question

  Hi,

  You *MUST* remember that anything you post on Face Book is public and is 
available to anyone.

  Even though you may mark things as private they really are not.

  There are folks out there who fish face book just looking for such news so 
they know who is not home.

  Cy, The Anasazi

  From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
Farfar Carlson
  Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 5:19 PM
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: Re: Facebook Question

  Not a good idea to let anyone know you're not going to be home. So if you 
can't trust FB then send out E-mail directly only to your trusted friends.

  Dave Created in the Audio Recording and Mixing Studios, San Jose, California

  ----- Original Message -----

  From: Jim

  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

  Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 16:07

  Subject: Facebook Question

  Howdy Facebook users,

  Does anyone know if on Facebook, one can write something to only a select 
group of people without having to post it as an event?

  For instance, I want to let my friends from my home town know that I'll be 
going to visit but don't need to let all of my other friends know so as not to 
clutter up things on their end.

  I thought of doing it as an event, but that's probably not the way to go. The 
group is large enough.

  Any ideas?

  Jim

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