Re: Facebook Question

  • From: <angel238@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 03:45:24 -0400

You would be surprised what can be found out about yourself years later.  My 
daughter told me my Grandsons mother was pregnant.  She hadn't told me.  I 
asked my daughter how she knew this.  She said she found it on my-space.  Just 
last week I searched for my daughters fathers name on the net.  He has been 
dead for 2 years.  I found things I never knew that were years old.  Facts 
about my deceased husband, who never touched a computer are still on the net.  
I know because I looked up his name as well.  Which proves the net doesn't 
update itself with the most current information.  I heard employers will just 
Google names of prospective employees to see what they find about them before 
they hire them.  God help you if your name is common.       
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Dave Durber 
  To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 5:55 PM
  Subject: 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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