I have cautioned you many times about spreading Facebook hoaxes about privacy rules or fake contests. Several times I’ve been asked this question, “What’s the harm? Better safe than sorry, right?”
I have to disagree. I think it’s always wrong to spread falsehoods. Especially falsehoods that can do harm. How can things like this do harm? They encourage a certain type of behavior, blindly believing what you see posted online with no effort to check it out. Posts like these could contain instructions that actually diminish your privacy settings. Sometimes they have links to alleged contests or rebates that infect your PC with malware that can steal your information or the names of your contacts. Your friends trust you. They think you wouldn’t post something false and scammers are preying on that trust to get to them.
This is also a way for crooks to seek our who to target with other scams like cloning accounts. If a person is gullible enough to fall for one scam, you go on their list for being gullible enough to fall for another. Yep, you could inadvertently be putting a target on the back of a pal, perhaps a vulnerable one. It’s a lot like litter. Yeah, one piece of trash tossed out the window won’t do much harm, but eventually, it adds up. Don’t litter Facebook.
~ Cynthia
I for one, applaud any and all efforts to enhance the Internet experience, which right now is being throughly eviscerated with not only false but morally indefensible trash. It is every users responsibility label their posts with documentation and proper punctuation, quotes and IP address where required, state plainly your own remarks, IE “I think” or “I say” so when your post is shared, it is tracked back to “you”. A good ‘spell checker’ should be required too.
I stress this behavior when I teach my Internet Security Class for senior citizens. I go through the identifying scam emails and I also show them how to check things on various sites. Your column will be used in class to give some “umph” to my lesson in April. Thanks, Cynthia for all your great posts.
I totally agree with Cynthia. I like the analogy with litter–my Facebook page is full of litter each day that I have to sift through to find something worth reading.
I agree with all the above. FaceBook just isn’t what it was when I first joined. It has gotten so far out hand and scary, that I have deactivated my account with them. It use to be so much fun to get on it and look at status lines my friends had put on FB, but not anymore. It’s all the sharing etc and I hate it.
I agree with you, Cynthia. When this type of garbage comes to me, I delete it. Sometimes I can tell by the Subject line, so I don’t even read it.
We. are all gossips. And rarely check before we post. Not a good idea. I try to verify before I commit on information I receive. Google, snopes, etc.
UFO, Jane Fonda, 9/11, Area 51: these are getting old! And obnoxious.
Let’s grow, move forward, and get a life!