Facebook users risk blackmail

Everyone who follows this blog knows that I do not like the way Facebook pretends to protect our privacy. But my statements pale in comparison to what Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's Privacy Czar, has to say. In a story in the Globe and Mail she says:

“I’m very concerned about these changes. More than half a million developers will have access to this data. The information will be stored indefinitely and it opens the possibility that a lot of people can be blackmailed from all corners of the world.”

That's a pretty strong assertion. I'm not sure how real a danger that is, but I understand her concern. It's embodied in another quote regarding how well Facebook is living up to the promise it made to the Canadian government to better protect members privacy. After the privacy changes announced last week she said, “They certainly seem to be moving in the opposite direction."

It's true that the constant privacy policy rewrites by Facebook would be better called 'personal publicity faciliators'. And with the odd, bewildering, and downright idiotic things that people post on Facebook blackmailable data will probably be posted by more than a few people. But once it's been posted to Facebook, how much of a lever can it be for blackmail?

Facebook cloning plus Nestle: Facebook fanbango

Facebook Cloning

In a report on 39online.com out of Houston Mayra Moreno reports on Facebook cloning. She introduces us to Edna Canales, who has had her social networking profile cloned twice: once on Myspace and once on Facebook. Apparently both times the cloner harvested pictures of her from the pages of Edna's friends and put up a page claiming to be her. The last time on Facebook, she discovered the clone when she got notices that her friends had friended another Edna Canales.

Both incidents were reported to the police, but you can't do much to someone who's cloned your Facebook page unless you can prove slander or harm done. Ms. Canales was fortunate. Someone, for some unknown reason cloned her page, but apparently only wanted to be her online for a while. It could have been much worse. The could have posted anything, and if people believed it was her, it would have impacted her reputation, her employability, possibly her continued employment. It's important to keep an eye on what's going on with your name online. For most people it will never be a problem. For others, constant vigilance can catch bad things before they blow up. Speaking of blow-ups, next up is

Nestle, the unFanpage

Caroline McCarthy on CNET tells us about Nestle's Facebook Fiasco. It seems that Greenpeace, who has had a longtime fight with Nestle over environmental practices, ie the use of palm oil in Nestle products, encourages supporters to use altered Nestle logos for their Facebook pages. When Greenpeace discovered Nestle's Fanpage on Facebook, they encouraged people to tell Nestle exactly what they thought about using palm oil.

Nestle had created a Fan page. They were not ready for the reaction they got. Apparently in "OMG, how do I control this!" panic mode, the pages manager started deleting posts from the page if they had adulterated Nestle logos. In response to protests, they made the technically correct, but PR nightmare "we are protecting our trademark" statement. That made matters worse, and eventually Nestle apologized and quit deleting posts. Will Nestle see the negative feedback on it's fanpage as an important sign and removes palm oil from its recipes? Only time will tell, but given the current state of the Nestle wall, they may want to consider it.

Jamere Holland latest facebook casualty

If you're like me, you may not know who Jamere Holland is. The former Oregon Ducks receiver was kicked off the team for his strong statements on Facebook. From a curse laden tirade regarding the booting of Kiko Alonso  as reported by Buster Blogger Brad Young to a statement reported in the Ducks Beat Blog regarding having white people as Facebook friends, Mr. Holland provides a prime example of not thinking before posting on his Facebook page. And he also needs to change his privacy settings. I'd never heard of Jamere Holland until today, but I was able to go to his Facebook page and take a screenshot of his wall:

[caption id="attachment_1061" align="center" width="500" caption="How to make and influence Facebook friends"][/caption]


I don't know, but I see more than one thing that probably shouldn't have been said. And Mr. Holland is paying a price for his outburst - an outburst that was at least premature, since the friend he was defending had not been kicked off the team. How this will affect his future, both on and off the field, probably won't be very obvious for a long time, but in the short term, he's provided one more example of how a short temper and a Facebook page can put you in hot water.