Identity – Page 4 – Just thoughts

Colleague of mine drew my attention to the way that some Facebook Apps may not be bound by the same criteria as those scripted by Facebook. If a Facebook App requires you to leave areas of your Profile Checked to work – just ask yourself the question why? Is it really necessary to reveal that information to a third party? What are they going to do with it? Now the “smart ones” will have locked their profiles down really tight – but for others this may be just a “trawling” exercise with the “fancy app” just the honeytrap to garner the profile information.

So next time you click to accept a Facebook app ask yourself the question – do I really need to do this? Do I really want to share information about myself with loads of unknown and unconnected people? How wide do I really want my “circle of friends” to extend.

If you’ve also got annoyed by the request of a Facebook App to post on to “x” other friends before you have access to the App, just say “no thanks” – it’s not worth it. I got “caught” by a genealogy app – don’t make the same mistake! Golden rule of genealogy – don’t reveal details of living relatives. Indicating to someone else who you’re related to on Facebook breaks that golden rule.

Something I’ve been pondering for a while now is how to redress the balance between what I do in work, for work and what I do at home – again for work. What I ask myself do I do for myself at work? Should I have a life in work, or should I strive to get the work out of my life at home!

Now, I do know the answer – but it’s not the one either I, nor work, would wish. I actually enjoy my work. It gives me huge satisfaction and when it’s going well – which is pretty much most of the time – it gives me the sort of buzz that I don’t want to back-off from. But still that niggle runs around my brain – what is it that I’m missing?

It is of course the social interaction with friends, colleagues and family that is increasingly being squashed into “spare time”, which is itself getting really squeezed. So, how do I redress this balance – I think you know the answer. The attitude towards using social networking software, conducting personal business and generally using the work time and resource for personal use must change. It’s only fair! At home, I’m paying for the electricity, the broadband connection, possibly the computer and of course providing my time – to do work!! The very least that work should allow me to do is to allow me to spend sometime doing this sort of thing!