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Thursday, February 10, 2011

private

social media has changed our lives - not always for the better.
it seems most of us are one or other of them: making friends; arranging events; living life -all made easier by social media.
fortunately the benefits outweigh the faults.
for a long time naysayers have been warning people to be careful what they put up on social sites, reminding them that what goes online stays online. warnings of identity theft; potential employers searching you out to see if you are suitable; problems of sexting or just the re-emergence of embarrassing photos of the past to cause your face to turn red.

i don't really like twitter. i have tried it. decided that it isn't for me: brevity is not my forte.
still i did have to smile at the story of the employee who tweeted (because that is what you do on twitter) that she was hungover at work (among other things) only to see her tweets appearing in the newspapers the daily mail and the independent on sunday (a curious meeting of minds there).
she claimed that the papers had invaded her privacy because what she had written was only intended for her 700 followers (i think 'private' loses its meaning when you are sending it to 700 people). she has lost her case as the courts have sided with the papers who say that not only is twitter publicly accessible but her many followers could retweet (another thing you do on twitter) her message to people she didn't know.

so remember be careful what you tweet.

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