Posted on 10/13/2012 8:11:08 AM PDT by billorites
AUSTIN, TexasBobbi Duncan desperately wanted her father not to know she is lesbian. Facebook told him anyway.
One evening last fall, the president of the Queer Chorus, a choir group she had recently joined, inadvertently exposed Ms. Duncan's sexuality to her nearly 200 Facebook friends, including her father, by adding her to a Facebook Inc. discussion group. That night, Ms. Duncan's father left vitriolic messages on her phone, demanding she renounce same-sex relationships, she says, and threatening to sever family ties.
The 22-year-old cried all night on a friend's couch. "I felt like someone had hit me in the stomach with a bat," she says.
Soon, she learned that another choir member, Taylor McCormick, had been outed the very same way, upsetting his world as well.
The president of the chorus, a student organization at the University of Texas campus here, had added Ms. Duncan and Mr. McCormick to the choir's Facebook group. The president didn't know the software would automatically tell their Facebook friends that they were now members of the chorus.
The two students were casualties of a privacy loophole on Facebookthe fact that anyone can be added to a group by a friend without their approval. As a result, the two lost control over their secrets, even though both were sophisticated users who had attempted to use Facebook's privacy settings to shield some of their activities from their parents.
"Our hearts go out to these young people," says Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes. "Their unfortunate experience reminds us that we must continue our work to empower and educate users about our robust privacy controls."
In the era of social networks like Facebook and Google Inc.'s Google+, companies that catalog people's activities for a profit routinely share, store and broadcast everyday details of people's lives. This creates a challenge...
(Excerpt) Read more at professional.wsj.com ...
So are we supposed to be mad at Facebook or sad that you are ashamed before your family of what you have become?
That’s happened to me, too. Fortunately it wasn’t anything embarrassing. A friend added me to a group of people who live in a certain city, even though I don’t live in that city, just near it. Facebook alerted all my friends, who started posting to me, “Oh, when did you move?!” This is an annoying glitch Facebook really needs to take care of.
She made her choice to be a pervert - now live with it.
At one time humility was considered godly. I see now it falls easily to the thrill of feeling morally superior to another.
maybe she thinks that what she does in the bed room isn’t something she wants to share with her parents....not an unreasonable stance regardless of your desires
Yep; Facebook stinks. - A few years ago, I got snared into it when I clicked on there to write someone a note of support (Sarah Palin). IMMEDIATELY, certain relatives and acquaintances latched on and “friended” me. - Long story short, at that time, I could find no way to escape. A friends DIL would post photos of her redecorating projects, tell when they were leaving the house on her “status”, and when they were returning. - They finally got robbed one day. - Others in the family and acquaintances would post cute, even sort of “sexy” photos of their children and grandchildren on Facebook. - Then, because I’m old and didn’t refuse anyone who requested “friending” because I thought they were probably people I’d met in the past that I didn’t remember, I got propositioned by some woman on there. - “Facebutt” is right!
You can set your privacy, so that you can not be tagged i a photo or added to a group without your permission.
Email is a communication tool. Facebook is an invasion of privacy and a cookie tracking advertising scheme. :p
But to each, his own! Haha.
I had a doctor tell me that UT was the worst place she'd ever seen for STDs. Driving past there makes me want to spray the car with Lysol.
I don't have FB. I don't want FB. If I want someONE to know something, I'll tell them in person or on the phone. If they want to see pictures, I'll email them or they can come see them in person. The world doesn't need to be privy to my entire life. I don't care what flavor everyone's Starbucks is and whether I'm having a good or bad hair day is not even remotely earth shattering.
Their house was broken into because they were posting their schedule on Facebook? Ah! I bet they felt horrible! You just can’t be sure who is looking at your Facebook information. The idea is good. Its a shame its not more secure. Being able to share pics with my family would be great, but it just doesn’t work like that.
“... says Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes. “Their unfortunate experience reminds us that we must continue our work to empower and educate users about our robust privacy controls.” “
The first thing that crossed my mind when I read that was “Go F yourself you dirtbag”
Farcebook does everything in its power to invade privacy and disseminate everyones personal information and then has the gall to blame the hapless users for failing to protect themselves.
“Exactly so. Dont want your parents to know - dont post it on facebook ffs. This isnt exactly hard.”
She didn’t post it on facebook.
Someone else added her to a group, and Farcebook broadcast that addition to all of her contacts, without her prior knowledge.
why do people think they have a right to secrecy?
The only reason I "logged on" - or whatever you do to this site - was because a friend was having a difficult pregnancy and it was through this medium that they chose to keep friends updated.
I posted absolutely nothing about myself.
It came as a surprise to find my date of birth; marital status; religious persuasion and political affiliation all there.
I erased as much as I could only to find the next day a message saying ...."Churchillspirit" has changed her religious persuasion.
sheesh I have been on there for a while and that stuff of mine is not on there
Are you referring to the moral superiority that oozes from your very own statement?
>>Facebook is a communication tool. <<
No, Facebook is a catalog of what’s in the warehouse. Idiots expose their most personal data on the in-stock sheets for advertisers/investigators/pedophiles and perverts to scan through using corporate algorithms.
Facebook is the world’s most profitable social engineering program to date.
She signed up with Queer Chorus. If I signed up with Whores Chorus, I would be embarrassed for my mother to see that.
I wouldn’t sign up for a group that I was ashamed of the world knowing, even my mother.
I don’t feel the need to sign up for a group according to my sexuality.
I signed up with God to share my life, body and bedroom with my husband and I feel no shame in that. I don’t care who knows.
I think common sense tells you social network means it’s pretty SOCIAL.
Actually, almost everything one uses the net for can become public at anytime. Approach it that way. That’s my opinion.
I’ve typed out plenty of chit I have wished I could retract. It is what it is, and we accept personal responsibility, lest we compromise this great tool (Freedom).
I advise you not to keep it in the sock drawer. Everyone knows that that is where most people keep them. Better to find a less obvious place and do not post it on the internet d;^)
Well it is a shame she felt she had to keep that from her father. Based on her reaction it appears she was right in her instincts about him. Must be tough to know your parent(s) will reject you based on you biology.
IMO people’s sexuality isn’t much of a choice different people have different genetic and hormonal imprinting. Sexual orientation for each gender probably looks like a Bell curve. Too bad many can’t deal with that.
Feel bad for the young woman.
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