Be careful what you post on Facebook

If you're a facebook user or a social network junky I highly recommend that you watch this documentary. Very eye-opening.

Facebook Follies Documentary

"Love it or hate it, Facebook is the world’s most successful social networking site. And whether you use it or nohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gift, it is fundamentally changing the way people connect and communicate. Facebook is easy to use and so far, more than three-quarters of a billion people all over the world have signed up. Our relationships, our thoughts, our pastimes, our memories, our lives and deaths - all are now routinely recorded on Facebook. It represents a paradigm shift in communications as significant as the printing press, or the telegraph, or the television. Inevitably, mishaps, embarrassment and trouble accompany such change.

Facebook Follies is a one-hour documentary that takes a look at the unexpected consequences of people sharing their personal information on social media. Viewers meet people who lost their jobs, their marriages, their dignity, or who even ended up in jail - all because of their own or someone else’s Facebook posting. To give a broader context to the events, these stories are intercut with reflections from experts in the areas of social change, internet security and contemporary media."

- CBC docZone

STATS

Total # of Canadians that are on Facebook : 16 908 380 (Ranked 13th against all other countries – As of October 2011)

Total % of Canadian population that are on Facebook : 50.08% (Ranked 17th against all other countries ­- As of October 2011)

Total of Facebook users as of September 2011 : 800 Million

Country with highest # of Facebook users : USA - 155 981 460 people (As of October 2011)

Country with lowest # of Facebook users : Vatican City - 20 people (As of October 2011)

Canadian average # of Facebook friends: 190 friends

Global average # of Facebook friends: 130 friends

Average amount of time Canadians spend on Facebook each month: 400 minutes

Daily active Facebook users in Canada : 9 Million

Minimum legal age for Facebook users : 13 years

Fastest growing Facebook user demographic : women 55 years +

Number of photos uploaded to Facebook daily : 250 Million (as of October 2011)

TIPS

You should never post anything on the internet that you don’t want becoming public. (Cyber Security Expert: Graham Cluley).

Limit the amount of personal information you post on Facebook because once it’s on the internet, you can never get it back.

Funny or embarrassing photos posted by yourself or someone else on Facebook might seem funny now, but they can have serious negative consequences in the future.

Un-tagging yourself from embarrassing photos posted on Facebook doesn’t make them go away, it only removes the direct link to your profile. To remove the photos permanently you’ll need to ask the person that posted them to delete them from Facebook.

Always verify that you actually know the people you are friending on Facebook. Accepting a friend request, especially from a stranger, could provide a hacker with access to all of your personal information and increases the risk of identity theft.

Become familiar with how to set your privacy settings on Facebook. The default privacy settings allow everyone to see all of your information. Changing your privacy settings only takes a few minutes and allows you to decide how much and with whom you’re sharing your information. Read more at facebook's Family Security Center

And remember: “Be Careful What You Post On Facebook.” – President Barack Obama