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Original poster

Please read if you use Facebook

298 replies

RoloAddict · 20/02/2018 23:56

So this week we had a new IT manager start in our department at work. Met him for the first time yesterday.. Today was called into a meeting with him along with other staff. He then proceeded to reveal that he'd taken a look at each of our Facebook profiles the previous evening. What he revealed about mine was shocking Shock. By using my Facebook profile and nothing else but good old Google (he proved this by showing us how he did it) he had managed to find out..

My full address including house number!
My DHs full name
My maiden name
Our wedding date
My Dd's names, dates of birth and the sports club they attend.
My stepdaughters name and the school she attended
That I have a stepson.

Needless to say I was horrified. This man was a virtual stranger. We had no mutual friends and I'd never met him until yesterday. I've obviously changed my privacy settings entirely since then. Before I just assumed they were set so that only friends could view them. Can I PLEASE remind and encourage all of you (plus family and friends) to check your settings throughly. We were lucky this time that the person in question didn't mean us harm but it's been a huge wake up call.

OP posts:
ivykaty44 · 21/02/2018 07:45

Ballin slayer your maiden name is on the GRO index - it’s not difficult to find, have a look for your own on freebmd

LadyRenoir · 21/02/2018 07:50

This is the reason we decided not to post anything about our baby on social media, neither of our holidays etc etc. Just random stuff saying nothing. You never know who is reading it.

BalloonSlayer · 21/02/2018 07:53

I am talking about your mother's maiden name, not mine.

Trills · 21/02/2018 07:54

The anger here is amusing but also worrying.

The IT manager is not "snooping" through things that are "private".

The whole point is that they were posted publicly.

IMightMentionGriddlebone · 21/02/2018 07:57

After you've changed your profile settings, you need to double-check how it all looks with the View As... function.

^You can see what your profile looks like to other people by using the View As tool. To use View As:

Go to your profile and click [the ... icon near or on your cover photo]
Click View As... in the dropdown menu.
You’ll see what your profile looks to the public. To see how your profile appears to a specific person, like a friend or coworker, click View as Specific Person, type their name and press enter.
Please keep in mind that posts and photos you’ve hidden on your timeline are still visible to the audience they're shared with other places on Facebook, like in News Feed and search. Learn more about choosing who can see the things you share.^

VandelayIndustries · 21/02/2018 07:58

This came home to me when that Jeremy Forest, the teacher, took that 14 year old pupil to France and the media used his wife’s blog as fodder. It was about their wedding and honeymoon and there were pictures and information galore.

It astounds me that people have open Facebook profiles.

whiskyowl · 21/02/2018 07:59

What detriment could come to me by a stranger knowing my maiden names, husband's name, or wedding date? I'm not being goady, it's a genuine question.

k2p2k2tog · 21/02/2018 08:01

Trills - that's not my objection, it's that his snooping has absolutely nothing to do with his job in the company.

What employees do with their social media in their own time is their business. Would it be OK if the office manager went round the car park, put everyone's car plates into the DVLA database and confronted people whose tax had expired? Or the legal manager searched the register of CCJs and told people that they knew they had defaulted on a loan? Or if the catering manager followed someone round Asda commenting on what they were putting in their trolley? No it wouldn't because it has nothing to do with their work.

It's the IT manager's job to have robust firewalls and security and make sure everyone knows about password safety and so on for their WORK computers. What people do with their own social media accounts in their own time is none of his business whatsoever.

Thisusernamethingistricky · 21/02/2018 08:09

I was just coming on to say that the 'view as' function on FB is really handy and it's worth just checking it all every few weeks to make sure there is nothing out there you don't want to be.

When you change your profile picture/cover photo, go into your previous picture and make sure that one is then set to friends only (profile pics have to be public). The go into all previous profile pics and ensure they are also friends only. I also do profile pics where its difficult to make anyone out, I have my back to the camera.

Make sure your friends list if private if you want it to be. This is handy because if some of your friends (especially relatives with the same name) have open profiles and you are mentioned (eg. So excited my sister in law is having a baby!) or anything you can be seen like that.

The other thing to be careful of is if you used have all public profile and then changed it in say 2011 or something, you may have forgotten but if someone looks.at your profile from the outside, all pre 2011 stuff will be totally visible. I once found one of DCs teachers on FB (accidentally!) and her profile was private but obviously before she started teacher training she had an open profile, and you could still see all of that. Plus when it's from your younger days it might be a bit more incriminating!

I am really surprised when I see some of my friends, who are intelligent savvy people, have totally open profiles.

Apart from the security stuff, if anything happened to me I would hate for the Daily Mail to be trawling through hundreds of pictures of me and my family to put in their article! They will get one photo of my back and that's it!

Trills · 21/02/2018 08:11

I'd say this comes under "educating the staff about internet security", which will be a part of the job.

Any breaches in security are more likely to some from a member of staff falling for a phishing attempt than from someone "hacking" the firewall.

cooldarkroom · 21/02/2018 08:13

My son recently applied for a job & was told by the recruiter to make sure his fb/other profiles were squeakily clean in terms of any possible racial/religious/drug/binges comments, or "likes" that are potentially
because they would be fully researching.
This became a problem when someone had usurped his name at one point & there were numerous dodgy posts that were not his.
FACEBOOK, in spite of repeated requests, have NOT taken them down. which is potentially damaging.
I hate fb.

cooldarkroom · 21/02/2018 08:13

potentially dodgy !

Estellanpip · 21/02/2018 08:15

What kind of egomaniac begins a job by presenting public and easily accessible info to do with staff, about themselves in a sealed envelope? What a prat. Depending on your job role, it should be in company policy to have no social media or to have it hidden.
It's well known that some universities and employers check social media for professionalism purposes. Why not just give a general talk about internet safety and to reiterate policy?

Scabbersley · 21/02/2018 08:18

I'm sorry but a lot of this is paranoid.

You don't have to be a shrub on Facebook

Just use made up names for security questions.

My dd is 12. If you Google her name there are pictures of her all over the Internet, her school and town and pets are easy to find.

All from local papers. She's not on Facebook.

JustVent · 21/02/2018 08:19

I don’t think he sounds like a dick at all I think he is savvy, realised that his employees may not be and actively saving them and their children from harm.

He bought to light several privacy and security issues. I’d be horrified but grateful.

From a personal point of view, I’m utterly paranoid about this. I’ve logged myself out and ‘searched’ myself a couple of times, trying to get information. I haven’t found anything and my FB is pretty secure (people can’t even friend me unless they are a friend of a friend) so I hope that I’m Ok, but I worry there’s another way ‘in’ that I haven’t realised.

VileyRose · 21/02/2018 08:21

I'm not on there and I use a fake name online!

notacooldad · 21/02/2018 08:23

cooldark
It sounds like it may be better if your DS temporarily deactivated his Facebook account for a while.
He can always reactivate it later and not lose his post, photos etc.

TheWizardofWas · 21/02/2018 08:23

But what is really the problem here. Because if my job I have a very public profile online...have to have downloadable CVS showing where I studied etc. Edited my mum's memoirs, which are online and published, so plenty of family info there, have been interviewed etc etc. Why is this an issue?

Greenteandchives · 21/02/2018 08:24

Has anyone else found a load of random people on their ‘blocking’, in settings/account settings? I had to block several people with odd sounding names.

Trills · 21/02/2018 08:26

It's not a problem if you know you have published your CV publicly and expect people to be able to find it.

It's a problem if you have put this information out there and don't know that it is out there, as is the case for the OP and some of her colleagues.

Mrsmadevans · 21/02/2018 08:31

He prob uses this as a set piece wherever he goes to show off his lack of talents what an arsehole Hmm

12345OnceCaughtAFish · 21/02/2018 08:36

For those saying they were stalked on fb. Genuine question. How do you know? I have no idea who sees what I put on fb, which is why I'm very careful about what I do put on there. You just don't know who is looking. Also you don't know how far back they are looking, a lot of 20 somethings have had fb posts from when they were teens come back to bite them whilst job hunting. It's unfair maybe, but recruiters amongst others can and do look at these things, they're out there in the public domain, it's not stalking, it's just reading publicly available information.

HollyBayTree · 21/02/2018 08:36

What detriment could come to me by a stranger knowing my maiden names, husband's name, or wedding date?

In it's self, nothing but information can be used to build profiles, for eg identity theft. For single women who advertise on dating sites, it becomes easy to see who has children, for single men, its easy to see what their hobbies and income is. Common passwords are pets and childrens names, with DOBs.

For those who frequently 'place drop' your work, social, hobby and holiday patterns are established and public viewing - is your house empty every Friday at 6pm because you are doing a scouts/guides drop off? Do you have your employer listed - easy google to find the core hours you work, is your house empty? That scout/cubs/guides run, I now know which church hall you use, I know which pack your child is in, I know his/her name and school.

How plausible is this: “Hi Mary, Mum has sent me to pick you up because Freddie the Dog has been run over and she’s taken him to the vet; dad wont be back from work until late because he’s been working away” – to child the ‘stranger danger’ has been removed. This person must know Mum and Dad and Freddy-the-dog, they have family information, therefore it’s safe to get in their car.

In a previous life I did forensic accounting - this isnt so different

k2p2k2tog · 21/02/2018 08:37

realised that his employees may not be and actively saving them and their children from harm.

Well, leaving to one side that I don't believe that the "harm" risk is that strong at all, it is still not his job role to lecture people on what they do in their spare time with their private social media accounts. He sounds like a total arse who needs a hobby other than stalking his colleagues online.

HollyBayTree · 21/02/2018 08:39

Has anyone else found a load of random people on their ‘blocking’, in settings/account settings? I had to block several people with odd sounding names.

Thats an urban myth - you input 'following' into the following box? It says these people maybe following you

I had a friend who got all hysterical until I gave her the Snopes link as to how it worked.

They arent following you BTW, they have the letters in 'following' in their name