Facebook just made your old private messages public – or did it?

The latest scandal to hit Facebook is from users reporting that old private messages (circa 2007-2008) have now been made public on their timeline.

Facebook is denying this, saying they aren’t private messages at all, just old wall posts.

Despite Facebook engineers knowing what they are talking about with their own software (or do they?), users ‘saw it with their own eyes’ so it must be a privacy breach.

Let’s back the truck up for a minute and find some evidence. Remember that? Facts that may help explain what has actually happened and an prove or disprove a theory?

So I checked out my own timeline and this is what I saw – shock, horror, a list of ‘messages’!

But hang on a minute – if I scroll down further, these actually appear as wall posts as well:

Now, if I actually go into my Private Messages for the same time period? Well, none of those on my ‘wall’ are in my Private Messages. And private messages that are there from around the same time period have not mysteriously appeared on my wall:

But hey, if you can actually show me some evidence where ALL of your private messages from that period are on your wall, then go for it.

Remember, we didn’t have a timeline in 2007.

I’m fairly certain that the messages I’ve shown you on my timeline were never sent as actual private messages and there has been no privacy breach. But I don’t work for Facebook and I can’t prove what’s happened here. I also don’t have access to your account so maybe I just have to take your word for it if you are really, really sure that some of your messages have magically transferred themseves out of your Inbox and onto your wall.  And if Facebook spends some more time investigating and proves, with evidence, that there really is a problem, I’ll accept it. But for now, based on the evidence I can see in my own profile, I’m really not worried.

-SCuffy

Hands up if you need a Smartphone Pledge!

Over the last few days, a few articles have come my way (including one I wrote myself) about smartphone addiction and the impact of our ‘always connected’ society. My favourite so far has been this fromm Joe Kraus at Google Ventures: http://joekraus.com/were-creating-a-culture-of-distraction

Hi, my name is Sonia and I’m addicted to my smartphone. Except it’s not my phone itself per se, it’s that feeling of knowing what is going on right now and what my internet friends are talking about. I’ve reverted to my teenage self and I don’t want to miss out, on anything, even for an hour.

The problem is that I am missing out. I’m missing out on the present. And yes, as new agey as it sounds, with the background of all of those talks that tell us to ‘truly be in the moment’, I’m missing out on what is going on in front of me. That’s kind of important when you have a family.

Don’t get me wrong – I still love to reach for my phone to look up the opening hours of a store or find a recipe or check if a TV program is on tonight. But I don’t need to constantly check it to see who’s posted what on Facebook and Twitter.

So I think someone needs to start up a website with a Smartphone Pledge. You could then sign this ‘contract’ and commit to it for a certain period of time (start with one day if you are seriously addicted, or one week, one month, or even until further notice?).

I’ll start with a few Pledge condition ideas:

- I pledge to not check my Smartphone before I’ve had a shower and eaten breakfast.

- I pledge to not have my Smartphone within reach during mealtimes.

- I pledge to go to the bathroom without my Smartphone.

- I pledge to not have my Smartphone when I am a passenger in a vehicle.

Is this all a bit much? Are we going to far here, or not far enough?

Today I discovered that my parents do not have email on their iPhone. It’s distracting. If somebody wants them urgently, they’ll call them or SMS. They don’t feel it’s necessary to check out what their friends are doing today or to share their day online. I don’t think that our teenagers or most Gen Xers even could cope with that.

We are the generations that have embraced technology. I know and share with a great bunch of people online that I would never have met in real life and I feel richer for it. But now I have another thing to add to my juggling act of balancing my life, to ensure I’m truly present for my kids and to show them have to squeeze the joy out of the present moment. If I don’t, they’ll grow up glued to their phones too. So you see, there is a lot at stake here.

Pass me that pledge to sign, please.

-SCuffy

P.S. If it’s the ‘meal out with friends’ that sees all of the smartphones in hand, check out the Phone Stacking game http://www.news.com.au/technology/smartphones/phone-stacking-game-to-get-friends-off-mobiles-at-meal-time/story-fn6vihic-1226247534506

Anatomy of a fake Facebook email

Today one of my email accounts received a Facebook notification, only I knew straight away that it was a fake.  This post shows you what the email looked like and the warning signs that this wasn’t a valid notification.  More likely, it was an attempt to steal my facebook details & hack into my account, after I had clicked on the links & willingly entered in my real facebook username and password for them.

Subject: Troy Stein commented on your status (#1 don’t know any Troy Stein)

To see the comment thread, follow the link below:
http://calabriarelations.it/message-3405/profile.php&id=13894&v=feed&story_fbid=randomnumber

Thanks,
The Facebook Team (#2 Calabriarelations are nothing to do with Facebook, in fact if you Google them, they look like a tour company)

This message was intended for helpme@ctaspley.com.au. (#3 helpme@ctaspley.com.au is a contact email address listed on our website and has never been registered with Facebook)

Want to control which emails you receive from Facebook? Go to:
http://calabriarelations.it/message-25937/editaccount.php?notifications&md=uXDdwYsVSTOxqOkUmWJ&mid=randomnumber
Facebook’s offices are located at 156 University Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301. (#4 Once again, calabriarelations appears!)

I’m not going to risk my laptop by even trying to click on those links to see where they’d take me, I’m just deleting that email now I’ve captured the details for you.

If you are ever slightly suspicious of a facebook notification email, log in to facebook’s website or app yourself and check your notifications inside your account – don’t click on any links inside emails!

-SCuffy