artificial ignorance

A couple of weeks ago I had an incident with someone I friended on Facebook. I usually just accept any facebook friend requests that come my way. But one person I added as a friend, found my sister on Facebook, befriended her (my sister accepted because she noticed this person was my friend) and from there, it got a little creepy. Apparently this person started asking some pretty pointed questions about my niece. My sister, who would trust my friends, gracefully answered these questions. Later on, my sister casually mentioned this friend’s inquisitiveness to me and the fact that this person had asked about my niece. This made me extremely suspicious. I immediately blocked this new friend and asked my sister to do the same, but I believe the damage had been done at that point. This person probably has pictures of my family in her (or his) possession now.

Soon after that incident, I decided to create a “notfriends” facebook list. I’m not one of those egotistical people – I generally add everyone as a friend, and don’t think about who can see what on my profile. But since this incident, I realized I should control who sees what on my profile. Today, after going through a few more friend requests, I decided to ensure that my privacy settings were in fact working and to my surprise, I find out they are not. Continue reading