Please use some common sense on Facebook.

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I have many coworkers that are my friends on Facebook. The site has their picture, full name and place of work. They'll post negative comments about patients in general or criticize their place of employment. I realize someone can have their profile hidden; however, nothing is really hidden online. Why incriminate and play career suicide?

Has anyone else noticed this trend? Know anyone fired for facebook posts or comments?

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I just checked mylife.com and they don't have my name at all (well there were a couple of entries with my name, but none of them were associated with places I've lived).

But I try to be careful about keeping my name either off a site, or if I use my real name it's behind security.

Peace,

CuriousMe

They didn't pull up my legal name but when I used the name I have always gone by which is a shortened version of my name it pulled up stuff (I didn't pay to see exactly what) and it had a picture for me that I use here. Totally bizarre.

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For those of you who think that just because you have your Facebook account set to private that no one can see your information, you are wrong! There ARE ways to get around those privacy setting. Facebook, Myspace, and email accounts are broken into all the time for legal reasons, for evidence, by hackers, etc. Now, would your boss go that far? Most likely not, but the point is that anything you post online CAN get into the wrong hands.

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For those of you who think that just because you have your Facebook account set to private that no one can see your information, you are wrong! There ARE ways to get around those privacy setting. Facebook, Myspace, and email accounts are broken into all the time for legal reasons, for evidence, by hackers, etc. Now, would your boss go that far? Most likely not, but the point is that anything you post online CAN get into the wrong hands.

Right, and if I write in my journal which I store under my pillow someone could break in to my house and steal that as well (it would be as legal as an employer hacking in to my account and would need a warrant just the same a someone legally going in to my Facebook account). There is no real privacy....just levels of inconvenience that you make for folks to get information you don't want them to have free access to. That's the same for the digital and physical world. Locks don't keep determined burglars out....they make you a less desirable target.

If you use strong passwords (should be more than 8 characters and should be a combination of numbers, symbols and letters (upper and lower case) and change them somewhat regularly....the chances of a hacker bothering with your facebook account are slim (just like thieves who break in to physical places, they tend to look for the easiest targets).

Now, if folks don't do that....their chances of getting hacked go up. Just like if folks don't lock the front door, their chances of being robbed go up.

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Thanks for posting this! I hate that employers search for you and use your personal information "against" you, but unfortunately there's nothing anyone can do about that.

Because of this post, I put my full name into Google and did a people search for me. I was suprised to see my name, address, and e-mail address on a few websites that I never signed up on! Those being 123people.com, MyLife.com, US search, and intellius.com. I contacted all of these websites with hopes of them removing my personal information. If that doesn't work, I will be contacting my county's records departments.

I am not doing this because I have anything to "fear" from future employers, but rather because I don't feel comfortable having my public information out there. I just got out of a nasty and violent relationship; I don't want this person finding where I live, etc.

A little off topic I guess, but I just wanted to let everyone know that your information really IS out there, and there are ways to remove it if you look and work hard enough. Checking these websites every so often would be helpful too, as this information can easily be reposted in the future. Please be careful for your future and your personal safety!

there's a site, which I can't remember the name of at the moment (maybe someone else has a better memory than I do) where you can remove at least your phone number and address from a lot of sites as well as google phone book. Just a head's up, for about 15 bucks, you can get pretty much all the info there is on anyone you want with just minimal input. Very scary.

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Right, and if I write in my journal which I store under my pillow someone could break in to my house and steal that as well (it would be as legal as an employer hacking in to my account and would need a warrant just the same a someone legally going in to my Facebook account). There is no real privacy....just levels of inconvenience that you make for folks to get information you don't want them to have free access to. That's the same for the digital and physical world. Locks don't keep determined burglars out....they make you a less desirable target.

If you use strong passwords (should be more than 8 characters and should be a combination of numbers, symbols and letters (upper and lower case) and change them somewhat regularly....the chances of a hacker bothering with your facebook account are slim (just like thieves who break in to physical places, they tend to look for the easiest targets).

Now, if folks don't do that....their chances of getting hacked go up. Just like if folks don't lock the front door, their chances of being robbed go up.

Well if my employer broke into my house to steal my journal, they would be in heap of legal trouble and not to mention the fact that they would be met at the door by my loyal dog:)

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Specializes in ALF/SNF.

I just recently read somewhere online that potential employers will search your facebook/myspace to see what kind of a person you are..... that's scary!

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Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.
I just recently read somewhere online that potential employers will search your facebook/myspace to see what kind of a person you are..... that's scary!

oh crap, i'm doomed, lol

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Well if my employer broke into my house to steal my journal, they would be in heap of legal trouble and not to mention the fact that they would be met at the door by my loyal dog:)

That was kind of my point. The idea that folks shouldn't ever post anything because someone can find it (reasons given were hacking, or by police investigation) is as absurd as thinking they can post anything up there and no one will see it.

As with most things, it's somewhere in the middle. Just like the real world, there are laws that protect you from an employer hacking in and there's security measures that can protect your account from hackers (just as there are laws that protect you from an employer searching your house without a warrant and there are locks you can put on your house to discourage thieves).

If folks take precautions, their data is secure on FB. It's actually much more private than sending an e-mail.

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I deactivated my facebook account. It's not worth all the BS that nosy nurses and managers can use it for.

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