Cuppacafe

Yeah, yeah, we all love Facebook, but what we don't like is how cavalier they seem to be with our private information, and how fast they are to change things up in this area without telling us about it. Well, it seems that people are talking...

First, consider the changes it's imposed on its users. One turns many parts of your personal profile--your city, employer, hobbies and so on--into public links unless you remove that information. Another change can expose your endorsements of links at various sites, this one included, with a click of Facebook's increasingly-ubiquitous "Like" button. (Note that my first posts on these changes failed to capture their privacy implications.) A third, "Instant Personalization," shares some of your data, without your advance permission, with other sites.

Well, the article goes on to say that Facebook itself seems both unconcerned and, well arrogant about the problems and complaints from its users, still, we keep coming back, what else are we going to do?

The Perfessor

If you (like us) are a Facebook addict, er fan, you happily go on and post all sorts of silly crap to your page, well, as you may or may not know there are security measures that you can take to prevent third parties, "friends" (Friends of friends) and, well stalkers from gaining access to what you post. What you may not know, is that there are also several "hidden" things that you can do to protect your privacy.

Here is one of them, courtesy of Minnesota's Jr. Senator (and former SNL funnyman) Al Franken:

Al Franken, hater of Facebook's cavalier approach to privacy, has posted instructions for how to keep Facebook from disclosing your personal information to their "partners." Guess what? It's kinda hard! No, really, there's more to it than you might expect.

We advise you to take heed.

The Perfessor

Will Facebook Destroy Your Marriage? Who knows, but if you were to believe the report from below (from Law.com), then perhaps you had better reevaluate how you (and your spouse) spend your spare time.

Facebook It turns out that one of the most significant impacts that the rapid spread of Facebook is having on society may be ... destroying marriages?

The Telegraph reports that by reconnecting old flames and enabling new ones, Facebook is tempting to people to cheat on their partners. One law firm that specializes in divorce asserts that almost one in five petitions they process cite Facebook as a reason, as spouses are finding evidence of flirting and even affairs on the site.

The 20 percent statistic may be high as it comes from a law firm that handles divorces online, but Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online, says that after hearing from his staff that Facebook was a recurring issue, he confirmed the 20 percent figure. "The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to," he says.

The article even mentions one 35-year-old woman who discovered her husband was divorcing her when he updated his Facebook status to read: "Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady."

We’ve spoken about this before, about people who are addicted to Facebook (all you Farmville freaks!), and while there are those of us who think that there is something truly wrong with those of you (us) who feel the need to plugged into the 'net for 24/7, there just might be an up side to this sort of addiction.

Consider the case of one Rodney Bradford, 19, who’s life was (quite literally) saved by Facebook. Doubt us? You shouldn’t. Turns out that his Facebook status plea from a morning from a couple of days ago demanding the immediate consumption of one of the basic food groups every human being needs to properly function in the morning (pancakes), proved to be his alibi.

Rodney was arrested on October 18 as a suspect in two crimes. He declared himself innocent and Robert Reuland—his defense lawyer—found the key to free him: "Where's my pancakes?"

That seemingly inconsequential Facebook status update proved crucial when the Californian company confirmed that someone wrote it from his father’s Harlem apartment computer, using Rodney’s user and password at around the time of the alleged crime: Saturday October 17, 11:49am.

Needless to say this alibi of Rodney’s was backed up by Rodney’s father and stepmother, who declared he was at their Harlem home at the time.

On the other side of that self-same coin, is another 19-year old man, this one from Pennsylvania, who was actually nabbed because of his Facebook obsession, after he forget to log out of his Facebook account at the scene of the crime.

Why the hell would someone stop to check Facebook on a computer owned by the person you robbing? Facebook addiction is a serious problem folks. Mark my words—its only a matter of time before some idiot felon gives a play-by-play tweet session of a crime in progress. Hell, it's probably already happened. [Mashable]

Apparently Forest Gump’s mom was right; stupid is as stupid does.

The Perfessor

When you declare your love for someone on Facebook, you're happy.

And everyone knows about it.

When you finally break up...

Yeah, yeah, I know that I just posted on this subject the other day, but now I’m reading in CNN that there are some annoying types who haunt the virtual halls of the various social media networks:

The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers

(CNN) -- Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers.
Facebook can be a great tool, and an occasional annoyance. What kind of Facebooker are you?

Facebook can be a great tool, and an occasional annoyance. What kind of Facebooker are you?

There are lots of fun, interesting people you're happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people.

Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, the 160-character message that users post in response to the question, "What's on your mind?" An artful, witty or newsy status update is a pleasure -- a real-time, tiny window into a friend's life.

But far more posts read like navel-gazing diary entries, or worse, spam. A recent study categorized 40 percent of Twitter tweets as "pointless babble," and it wouldn't be surprising if updates on Facebook, still a fast-growing social network, break down in a similar way.

Combine dull status updates with shameless self-promoters, "friend-padders" and that friend of a friend who sends you quizzes every day, and Facebook becomes a daily reminder of why some people can get on your nerves.

You can go on to read the rest in the link above, but in case you are wondering, the 12 types are as follows:

• The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore.
• The Self-Promoter.
• The Friend-Padder.
• The Town Crier.
• The TMIer.
• The Bad Grammarian.
• The Sympathy-Baiter.
• The Lurker.
• The Crank.
• The Paparazzo.
• The Obscurist.
• The Chronic Inviter.

Which one are you (if any?)

The Perfessor