And as for Facebook…

I really do love technology but sometimes I think it has gone too far and become too interfering. There should be rules, there should be questions asked, there should be consultation with and protection for its followers. Anonymity no longer exists in the world of technology. And it should!

Take Yahoo for instance. It has installed the ‘Like’ button on web pages so that our activities can be revealed to friends and followers and vice versa. I imagine the same applies to other sources that use the ‘Like’ button. I particularly ‘liked’ one article in Yahoo News and, stupidly thinking it merely gave my approval for what was written, I clicked the button. Pretty soon I found that by clicking ‘Like’ I had authorised Facebook to inform me if any of my friends liked not only the item in question but others too.

Facebook is guilty of the same thing. Recently I was dismayed to learn that it gathers information and puts it in our 'accounts' whether we want it or not. I wouldn’t have known but for the thoughtful person who posted this: ALL THE PHONE NUMBERS from your phone are now on Facebook!

This was followed by instructions on how to cancel it out.

Go to the top right of the screen, go to ACCOUNT, go to EDIT FRIENDS, left side click CONTACTS. you will see all you're phone numbers (FB friends or not) are published that you have stored in your mobile phone. TO REMOVE, go to the right column, click on "this page." And then click "Remove" Please repost this on your status, so your friends can remove their numbers and thus prevent abuse if they do not want them published.

As advised, I checked my Facebook account and found both landline and cell phone numbers were listed of Facebook friends in America. Yet all I had done was respond to their comments from my iPhone. Hitherto I didn’t know their numbers. In case you’re wondering, those numbers were immediately removed from the account. On the plus side, none of my Facebook friends numbers were listed on MY account but that doesn’t mean they weren’t listed on someone else’s.

It may seem quite a harmless thing but let’s think seriously about this. The advice was to copy and paste the information so that all our Facebook friends would see it and hopefully take action. However, we don’t know if they did take action. In fact, we don’t even know the people very well. We like what we see but I could be the biggest crook out and who would know? Yet our numbers are paraded around and we can do what we like with them without the other party knowing. The majority of people are trustworthy, but there’s always that one who isn’t. So does Facebook know best?

Keep checking, there is no privacy in this world!