Facebook

[abaris]

Well, you have control over all of that. Nobody made you friend people you don't know or like. Facebook is what you make it. If you don't like it, you don't have to look at it.

Yet what you can't control is the amount of personal information being left on the internet forever. Unless you're very secretive about yourself, that is. And even then, you're friends - real or virtual - might not be. And every tiny bit of information on them is a sure pointer to your own probable lifestyle. All of this doesn't even need to be sinister. You just left a gigantic marketing profile of yourself on the web, for every interested party to use. It's also a known fact that employers tend to look up social media pages when someone applies for a job. There might just be one picture or one entry that goes against their grain and another person gets the job.

Working in a field that's closely related to marketing, I steer well clear. As I said, I'm not as naive to believe to not leave traces all over the web. But my traces don't come as a neat bundle at one ground zero that is designed to collect and connect as much personal data as possible. That's how facebook makes tons of money after all.