I’VE FACEBOOK STALKED YOU

Despite not understanding the Internet, Granny knows what Facebook is – or at least she roughly understands it. She follows the news keenly and, such is the permeation of Facebook into society, it is mentioned almost daily. It is deemed so influential in our lives that there is even a film coming out about its creation.

Facebook has bridged generational divides and wholly changed the way we socially interact. Before I started my MA, I joined a Facebook group providing details of the course. A girl also starting the course “added” me and, I’m not going to lie, I had a seriously good perve through her pictures. Why not? I’m not ashamed of it but if I had sat outside her house with a pair of binoculars and a box of doughnuts, I would be. It seems it is OK be a “Facebook stalker” because people have voluntarily added or approved their photos and they should expect it.

Making judgements about people based on pictures of them is of course very sad. This summer I went on holiday with a group of friends and arrangements were made through a Facebook group. I didn’t know some of the people invited so I had a look through their pictures. One bloke was stacked, bleach blonde and often coupled with either a rugby ball or fit bird. I decided that he was a “jock” and that I wouldn’t get on with him. As it turns out, I did: he was funny and an excellent cook, two attributes his profile pics were unable to demonstrate.

The most pressing concern with Facebook is the issue of privacy. My friends and I have come to a time in our lives when we must start being very serious. Jobs are scarce and competition is fierce. There always seems to be a smug know-it-all who was two years above you at school professing that, ‘the first thing a potential employer does is look at your Facebook page’.

I have no idea if this is true but if it is, it’s a worry. How much can a potential employer find out about you by typing your name into Facebook? How many incriminating photos or comments are on there? And is a potential employer the least or your worries? What about an identity thief, paedophile or murderer?

Ok, the murderer example is seriously extreme. But the other night I was watching Red Dragon, the prequel to the film Hannibal. In it, the murderer chooses his victims by watching home videos of them to see what they’re like and discover information about them, such as the layout of their house. It struck me how dated the film was. The murderer used a VCR (lol) for a start. If they were making the film today, he would be an expert computer hacker, who chooses his victims by scanning through their Facebook albums.

What is most worrying about Facebook is the lack of control you have over it. If I publish a picture of myself snorting a big line of white power then I jolly well deserve not a to get a job. But if one my friends publishes a picture of me at the kitchen table next to a pile of salt and captions it, ‘Dan gets ready to rack up some lines’, as I can well imagine them doing, then I have little control. I can de-tag it, but it may already be too late. The BBC may have already seen it, and blacklisted me…

Equally, someone could write on my wall in jest: you’re the biggest alcoholic, druggy nutter I’ve ever met! I’m none of those things but someone reading it doesn’t know that. Recently, my friend Rupert appeared on an episode of the One Show in which they examined how much could be found out about someone just from scrutinising Facebook. Apparently the results were surprising. An old photo of him in an intimate position with a girl was dug out to his embarrassment.

Knowing Rupert as I do, I’m sure this was entirely his fault. He probably uploaded and tagged the photo himself but its still the kind of thing that makes you squirm years later. In a decade or so, members of our generation will be politicians and public figures. And most of us have agreed that a website owns any pictures we put on it. In the future, will the press be able to pay for pictures of the new Prime Minister at a full-moon party?

As far as I know, even if you delete your account, your pictures are still owned by the “Facebook team”, those mysterious beings that agree to ridiculous name-changes or delete silly groups you wish you’d never made. And if you don’t have the right privacy settings, people who aren’t “friends” can view your pictures and save them onto their computer. The equivalent ten years ago was to break into someone’s house, go through their photo albums and make copies. Creepy.

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones revealed in his blog that even if you aren’t a member of Facebook, the site still knows information about you. He states: “Facebook knows at least something about you the minute you hand over your e-mail address, and it’s possible for someone who knows that address to extract some of that information.”

If you’re really worried then I would suggest doing as a friend of mine has done and setting up an account under an entirely fake name. It gives you control and handily prevents irritating people you met once at a house party after a night out from adding you. For most of us, its too late and this isn’t an option. But now you can apparently pay companies to clean up your Facebook page for an employer’s viewing pleasure.

I will finish by saying that there are many privacy issues, most of which I have barely touched upon, connected to Facebook use. But for the most part, it is something to be enjoyed. I imagine if it wasn’t for Facebook, none of you would have read this blog. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to share information, organise parties or stay in touch so effortlessly.

But it remains something that I am increasing more guarded about. Much of what goes on is out of my control but I have tried to make my page as private as possible without being totally boring and disabling my wall. It remains to be seen whether Facebook will ever bring down a public figure but I’m willing to bet it will one day. And for the rest of us, it would be truly gutting if something so trivial as a silly picture, ruined our chances of a dream job.