The reason’s for Another Day On Facebook ending will be listed later in another post but now it is UPDATE TIME!!!!!!!! (If you want to read the inital post where I detail how Facebook privacy settings are being rendered useless visit this link)

Let’s get right into this by bringing the people up to speed who are too lazy to click the link above.

RECAP TIME!!!!!!!!!!

According to sources, now verified for the University of Florida, it is becoming regular practice for the employment sector of corporations/institutions to essentially bypass all Facebook privacy settings through the following means.

The Followings Means: The corporation/institution will call individuals in for an interview and the first thing they will do is hand the potential hirer a laptop and say “Log into your Facebook, and explain your pictures.”  (If you want to see how UF student’s reacted to this practice visit this link. It is hilarious so don’t be lazy -_- ) Recap officially over.

UPDATE TIME!!!!!!!!!!

When I heard this I immediately contacted the University of Florida to ask them why, to whom, and exactly how. Unfortunately, they did not respond to me in time and so the first post, of which this is the update of, went up without word from the University. Fortunately, yesterday I got a hold of somebody and we had an enlightening, almost magical, talk about this practice and I learned oh so much.

The Enlightening, almost Magical, Talk That Made Me Learn Oh So Much: The gentleman I spoke with is a professor at the University of Florida who teaches a class on the revolution of the internet/social media and how it affects our daily lives. At the beginning of the interview he pulled out books on the subject and cited a study about how businesses are using social media  to screen hires. At the end of this research, where businesses such as Coca Cola and Amazon.com responded, it was apparent that major corporations, not just Universities, intended to use social media to the fullest.  Some going as far as friending potential hires on Facebook. (For the  full study visit NACE)

When I asked him for an example of this at the University he, without hesitation, responded by telling me of Excelsior a program that offers tours at UF. Apparently, on the second or third round of interviews this program conducts the aforementioned practice. He told me that the logic behind this was that UF and Excelsior cannot have individuals who are of questionable character because they are representing the school to prospective students. If they say or do something wrong/offensive they could deter the potential freshman from enrolling.

In the end he made it clear that the University of Florida has no remorse for this practice and apparently neither do major corporations. They need to find out who they are actually hiring and if they will be an asset or a liability. For all those out there who feel as if this is a severe breach of privacy, remember that these major corporations also conduct more in-depth and extensive background checks.

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Another Day On Facebook

There is an adage among programmers that says there is no way to make a perfect program because it is impossible to make anything idiot proof. I am here on my humble, yet majestic blog to apologize for the bait and switch and then proceed to switch on you. I tried, oh how my tender soul tried, for three whole days to come up with a guide which would ensure that a lack of common sense was continuously over ridden by Facebook’s privacy settings. At the end of these three days, when the arduous task forced me to collapse in sheer exhaustion, I stared into the sky and saw a shining light. It was an angel, sent by God himself, bestowing upon me what I like to call “Common Sense.”  Below is the holy Text.

Friends

1. Do not add everybody you met over the weekend. Half of these people were inebriated and if they weren’t they probably would not have liked you. They are not really your friends and because of this they will probably tag you in every picture that will cause you to lose your job, scholarship, and morals.
2. Stop being lazy and create categories for the friends you did add. We all have those people on our friends list that we cannot delete because if we did we know they would know who deleted them. Instead of giving up and allowing them to see all your information set up categories that provide restricted access to your profile. If you do not know how to do this visit Mashable

Applications

1. Never click allow if you don’t actually like the application. When an application page says “Allowing [Insert Choice Application] access will let it pull your profile information, photos, your friends’ info, and other content that it requires to work.” It means that if you click allow it will be able to pull your profile information, photos, your friend’s info, and other content that it requires to work.

Default Privacy Settings

1. Change your profile privacy from default. According to the most recent class action lawsuit against Facebook, After the revision to Facebook’s layout, the information that Facebook makes publicly available by default includes user names, photos, friend’s listing, the names of any organizations and products that a user might support, as well as geographic data and other information

If you still need a guide to all the intricacies that are Facebook security settings the links are below.

Application Privacy

10 Facebook Privacy Settings Everybody Should know

Guide to new Facebook Home Page

It’s not just UF either. This practice is now becoming regular procedure for many corporations across the United States. Unfortunately, not many college students know this. Fortunately, your friendly neighborhood blog, Another Day On Facebook, took it upon it’s shoulder to inform the inebriated masses that this is occurring.

Last Thursday we went to the University of Florida’s campus to inform and ask students what their bosses would see if this Facebook profile strip search ever happened to them. The video below contains their responses.

Whether or not you feel comfortable with your future boss looking through your Facebook does not take away from the fact that businesses are getting smarter. They now realize that people’s public Facebook profiles are, because of privacy settings, becoming less and less reliable as a judge of an individual’s character. To me this is just a wake up call. We have to be more careful when it comes to putting information online. Censoring, such as changing your profile to private, can only go so far.

Check back Wednesday for a comprehensive guide to not only protecting your information on Facebook but also preventive measures that will ensure your information does not get leaked to your friend’s friends.

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Another Day On Facebook

Take this blog and post for instance. By its mere existence I am saying that my words and efforts are worth being read by you, the reader, who could probably better spend their time increasing the Facebook agricultural output through Farmville. To go further you could say that I am in fact robbing your friends from the multitude of Farmville updates that notify them that there is an orphaned antelope in your chicken coop and that it is their duty to save it. That is right I am depriving orphaned antelopes a chance at a better life.

Now that I have got your attention and you have reported me to PETA, here comes the whole point of this post. I want you to email me. Not because I want to sell your email address to advertising companies but because I want to hear your stories about social media. What do you love? What do you hate? What are your concerns? Tell me the story about how you wish you could have prevented those New Year photos from surfacing or how you don’t understand why it is acceptable to poke strangers on Facebook but not in real life. Email me at anotherdayonfacebook@Gmail.com and I will respond. You never know, I may even feature your letter on the blog.

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Another Day On Facebook

P.S.

Thursday Friday February 11^th I will be on the University of Florida’s campus, interviewing students for a blog post that will be up early next week. So don’t only share this blog, which you should be doing if you chuckled at least once, but stay tuned and check back next week to see UF student’s response to the following question.

“If you walked into an interview and the first thing the interviewer did was hand you a laptop and say open your Facebook. What would he/she see?”